Mortuary temple

Mortuary temples (or funerary temples) were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh by whom they were constructed, as well as for use by the Pharaoh's cult after death.

Mortuary temples were built around pyramids in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. However, once the New Kingdom pharaohs began constructing tombs in the Valley of the Kings, they built their mortuary temples separately, these New Kingdom temples were called "mansions of millions of years" by the Egyptians.[1]

These temples were also used as a resting place for the boat of Amun at the time of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, during which the cult statue of the god visited the west bank of Thebes.

Later rulers of the 18th Dynasty either failed to build here at all or, in the case of Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb, their construction was not completed. The 19th Dynasty ruler Seti I constructed his temple at what is now known as Gurna.[3] Part of his "Glorious temple of Seti Merenptah in the field of Amun which resides at the West of Thebes" was dedicated to his father Ramesses I, whose short reign prevented him from building his own, and was completed by his son Ramesses II.

Ramesses II constructed his own temple, referred to as the Ramesseum (a name given to it by Champollion in 1829): "Temple of a million years of Usermaatre Setepenre which is linked with Thebes-the-Quoted in the Field of Amun, in the West".[4]

1.
Egyptian temple
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Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians

Egyptian temple
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The Temple of Isis at Philae, with pylons and an enclosed court on the left and the inner building at right
Egyptian temple
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Low relief of Seti I performing rituals for the god Amun
Egyptian temple
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Sunk relief of personified provinces of Egypt bearing offerings for the temple god
Egyptian temple
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Reconstruction of an Old Kingdom pyramid temple, with causeway leading out to the valley temple

2.
Imperial cult
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An imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor, or a dynasty of emperors, are worshipped as demigods or deities. Cult here is used to worship, not in the modern pejorative sense. The cult may be one of personality in the case of a newly arisen Euhemerus figure or one of identity or supranational identity in the case of a multi-ethnic state. A divine king is a monarch who is held in a religious significance by his subjects. This system of government combines theocracy with an absolute monarchy, the Ptolemaic dynasty based their own legitimacy in the eyes of their Greek subjects on their association with, and incorporation into, the cult of Alexander the Great. In Imperial China, an emperor was considered the Son of Heaven, the scion and representative of heaven on earth, he was the ruler of all under heaven, the bearer of the Mandate of Heaven, his commands considered sacred edicts. A number of legendary figures preceding the proper imperial era of China also hold the title of emperor, such as the Yellow Emperor. Even before the rise of the Caesars, there are traces of a regal spirituality in Roman society, King Numitor corresponds to the regal-sacred principle in early Roman history. Romulus, the founder of Rome, was heroized into Quirinus. Varro spoke of the mystery and power of Roman regality. In Plutarchs Phyrro,19.5, the Greek ambassador declared amid the Roman Senate he felt instead like being in the midst of an assembly of Kings. As the Roman Empire developed the Imperial cult gradually developed more formally and this practice began at the start of the Empire under Augustus, and became a prominent element of Roman religion. The cult spread over the whole Empire within a few decades, Emperor Diocletian further reinforced it when he demanded the proskynesis and adopted the adjective sacrum for all things pertaining to the imperial person. The deification of emperors was gradually abandoned after the emperor Constantine I started supporting Christianity, however, the concept of the imperial person as sacred carried over, in a Christianized form, into the Byzantine Empire. In ancient Japan, it was customary for every clan to claim descendancy from gods, later in history, this was considered common practice by noble families, and the head members of the family, including that of the imperial family, were not seen to be divine. It was not until the Meiji period, that the Japanese Emperor began to be venerated along with a sense of nationalism. Arahitogami – the concept of a god who is a human being applied to the Shōwa Emperor, ningen-sengen – the declaration with which the Shōwa Emperor, on New Years Day 1946, declined claims of divinity, keeping with traditional family values as expressed in the Shinto religion. Devaraja is the Hindu-Buddhist cult of deified royalty in Southeast Asia and it is simply described as Southeast Asian concept of divine king

3.
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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Some scholars also include the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt wholly into this period as well, in which case the Middle Kingdom would finish c. 1650, while others only include it until Merneferre Ay c.1700 BC, during the Middle Kingdom period, Osiris became the most important deity in popular religion. The period comprises two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and the 12th Dynasty onwards which was centered on el-Lisht, after the collapse of the Old Kingdom, Egypt entered a period of weak Pharaonic power and decentralization called the First Intermediate Period. Towards the end of period, two rival dynasties, known in Egyptology as the Tenth and Eleventh, fought for power over the entire country. The Theban 11th Dynasty only ruled southern Egypt from the first cataract to the Tenth Nome of Upper Egypt, to the north, Lower Egypt was ruled by the rival 10th Dynasty from Herakleopolis. The struggle was to be concluded by Mentuhotep II, who ascended the Theban throne in 2055 B. C, during Mentuhotep IIs fourteenth regnal year, he took advantage of a revolt in the Thinite Nome to launch an attack on Herakleopolis, which met little resistance. After toppling the last rulers of the 10th Dynasty, Mentuhotep began consolidating his power over all Egypt, for this reason, Mentuhotep II is regarded as the founder of the Middle Kingdom. Mentuhotep II commanded military campaigns south as far as the Second Cataract in Nubia and he also restored Egyptian hegemony over the Sinai region, which had been lost to Egypt since the end of the Old Kingdom. He also sent the first expedition to Punt during the Middle Kingdom, by means of ships constructed at the end of Wadi Hammamat, Mentuhotep III was succeeded by Mentuhotep IV, whose name significantly is omitted from all ancient Egyptian king lists. The Turin Papyrus claims that after Mentuhotep III came seven kingless years, despite this absence, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments. The leader of expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the future pharaoh Amenemhet I. Mentuhotep IVs absence from the king lists has prompted the theory that Amenemhet I usurped his throne, while there are no contemporary accounts of this struggle, certain circumstantial evidence may point to the existence of a civil war at the end of the 11th dynasty. Inscriptions left by one Nehry, the Haty-a of Hermopolis, suggest that he was attacked at a place called Shedyet-sha by the forces of the reigning king, but his forces prevailed. Khnumhotep I, an official under Amenemhet I, claims to have participated in a flotilla of 20 ships to pacify Upper Egypt, donald Redford has suggested these events should be interpreted as evidence of open war between two dynastic claimants. What is certain is that, however he came to power, from the 12th dynasty onwards, pharaohs often kept well-trained standing armies, which included Nubian contingents. These formed the basis of larger forces which were raised for defence against invasion, however, the Middle Kingdom was basically defensive in its military strategy, with fortifications built at the First Cataract of the Nile, in the Delta and across the Sinai Isthmus. Early in his reign, Amenemhet I was compelled to campaign in the Delta region, in addition, he strengthened defenses between Egypt and Asia, building the Walls of the Ruler in the East Delta region. Perhaps in response to this perpetual unrest, Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt in the north, known as Amenemhet Itj Tawy, or Amenemhet, the location of this capital is unknown, but is presumably near the citys necropolis, the present-day el-Lisht

Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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An Osiride statue of the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, Mentuhotep II
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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The head of a statue of Senusret I.
Middle Kingdom of Egypt
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Statue head of Senusret III

4.
Beautiful Festival of the Valley
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The Beautiful Festival of the Valley was an Ancient Egyptian festival, celebrated annually in Thebes, during the Middle Kingdom period and later. The Beautiful Festival of the Valley or heb nefer en inet in Egyptian was a celebration of the dead, the Beautiful Festival of the Valley could be more ancient than the Opet Festival as it can be traced back to the Middle Kingdom. It was said to be held as a remembrance of the dead, however, when joined with the Festival of Opet, the holy procession became the main event of the liturgical calendar of Thebes. The annual festival was held at the New Moon of Month Two and this was the summer season, shemu, and the 10th month in a calendar of 12. During Hatshepsuts reign she carried out both the Opet and The Beautiful Festival of the Valley to Amun, there was a grand precession at the start of the festival which could go for several days. It was a colourful and joyous occasion for the people of Thebes and this barque would then be placed in a Userhet, that was covered in gold and precious materials. This Userhet would be followed by boats for Mut and Khonsu to form the Theban Triad, the procession proceeded to the Temple of Million Years of the King where the townspeople would sacrifice food and drink as well as flowers to the flotilla of boats. Great quantities of flowers would be presented, as it is believed by the Egyptian culture that the flowers became filled with the essence of the deity, townspeople then took these flowers to their relatives tombs to pay their respects and ensure the revival of the deceaseds spirit. They would drink and sleep on the tombs as different levels of consciousness blessed the dead. Amuns shrine was brought into the Djoser-djoseru to reaffirm the bond between the king of the gods and the king of the people. Davies, V. & Friedman R. Egypt, British Museum Press,1998 Strudwick N & Strudwick K. Thebes in Egypt, Cornell University Press,1999

Beautiful Festival of the Valley
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The Beautiful Festival of the Valley at the Tomb of Nakht
Beautiful Festival of the Valley
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Temple sites

5.
Deir el-Bahari
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Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of the Theban Necropolis, the first monument built at the site was the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh dynasty. It was constructed during the 15th century BC, during the Eighteenth dynasty, Amenhotep I and Hatshepsut also built extensively at the site. Mentuhotep II, Eleventh Dynasty king who reunited Egypt at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and his mortuary temple was built on several levels in the great bay at Deir el-Bahari. It was approached by a 16-metre-wide causeway leading from a temple which no longer exists. As the temple faces east, the structure is likely to be connected with the sun cult of Rê and the resurrection of the king. From the eastern part of the forecourt, a called the Bab el-Hosan leads to an underground passage. On the western side, tamarisk and sycamore trees were planted beside the ramp leading up to the terrace, at the back of the forecourt and terrace are colonnades decorated in relief with boat processions, hunts, and scenes showing the kings military achievements. Statues of the Twelfth Dynasty king Senusret III were found here too, the inner part of the temple was actually cut into the cliff and consists of a peristyle court, a hypostyle hall and an underground passage leading into the tomb itself. The cult of the dead king centred on the small shrine cut into the rear of the Hypostyle Hall, the mastaba-like structure on the terrace is surrounded by a pillared ambulatory along the west wall, where the statue shrines and tombs of several royal wives and daughters were found. These royal princesses were the priestesses of Hathor, one of the main ancient Egyptian funerary deities, although little remained of the kings own burial, six sarcophagi were retrieved from the tombs of the royal ladies. Each was formed of six slabs, held together at the corners by metal braces, the sarcophagus of Queen Kawit, now in the Cairo Museum, is particularly fine. The burial shaft and subsequent tunnel descend for 150 meters and end in a burial chamber 45 meters below the court, the chamber held a shrine, which once held the wooden coffin of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep. A great tree-lined court was reached by means of the processional causeway, beneath the court, a deep shaft was cut which led to unfinished rooms believed to have been intended originally as the king’s tomb. A wrapped image of the pharaoh was discovered in area by Howard Carter. The temple complex also held six mortuary chapels and shaft tombs built for the pharaohs wives, the focal point of the Deir el-Bahari complex is the Djeser-Djeseru meaning the Holy of Holies, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. It is a structure, which was designed and implemented by Senenmut, royal steward and architect of Hatshepsut, to serve for her posthumous worship. Djeser-Djeseru sits atop a series of colonnaded terraces, reached by ramps that once were graced with gardens

Deir el-Bahari
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Djeser-Djeseru – Hatshepsut's temple, the focal point of the complex.
Deir el-Bahari
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Deir-El-Bahari
Deir el-Bahari
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The three temples at Deir el Bahari from the top of the cliff behind them, part of Hatshepsut's temple on left, Tuthmosis III's temple in center, and Mentuhotep II's temple on right.
Deir el-Bahari
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Hatshepsut's temple.

6.
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, the warrior kings of the early 18th Dynasty had encountered only little resistance from neighbouring kingdoms, allowing them to expand their realm of influence easily. The situation had changed radically towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, the Hittites gradually extended their influence into Syria and Canaan to become a major power in international politics, a power that both Seti I and his son Ramesses II would need to deal with. The Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty ruled for one hundred and ten years. Seti Is reign is considered to be 11 years and not 15 years by both J. von Beckerath and Peter Brand, who wrote a biography on this pharaohs reign. Consequently, it will be amended to 11 years or 1290-1279 BC, therefore, Setis father and predecessor would have ruled Egypt between 1292-1290 BC. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes, more information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. New Kingdom Egypt reached the zenith of its power under Seti I and Ramesses II, who campaigned vigorously against the Libyans and the Hittites. The city of Kadesh was first captured by Seti I, who decided to concede it to Muwatalli of Hatti in a peace treaty between Egypt and Hatti. He ultimately accepted that a campaign against the Hittites was a drain on Egypts treasury and military. In his 21st regnal year, Ramesses signed the first recorded peace treaty with Urhi-Teshubs successor, Hattusili III, Ramesses II even married two Hittite princesses, the first after his second Sed Festival. At least as early as Josephus, it was believed that Moses lived during the reign of Ramesses II and this dynasty declined as internal fighting between the heirs of Merneptah for the throne increased. Amenmesse apparently usurped the throne from Merneptahs son and successor, Seti II, after his death, Seti regained power and destroyed most of Amenmesses monuments. Both Bay and Setis chief wife Twosret had a reputation in Ancient Egyptian folklore. After Siptahs death, Twosret ruled Egypt for two years, but she proved unable to maintain her hold on power amid the conspiracies. She was likely ousted in a revolt led by Setnakhte, founder of the Twentieth Dynasty, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt Family Tree

Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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Seti I
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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Egyptian and Hittite Empires, around the time of the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC).
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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Ramesses II
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
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Seti II

7.
Seti I
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Menmaatre Seti I was a pharaoh of the New Kingdom Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The name Seti means of Set, which indicates that he was consecrated to the god Set, as with most pharaohs, Seti had several names. Upon his ascension, he took the prenomen mn-m3‘t-r‘, usually vocalized as Menmaatre, in Egyptian and his better known nomen, or birth name, is transliterated as sty mry-n-ptḥ or Sety Merenptah, meaning Man of Set, beloved of Ptah. Manetho incorrectly considered him to be the founder of the 19th dynasty, Seti, with energy and determination, confronted the Hittites several times in battle. Without succeeding in destroying the Hittites as a danger to Egypt, he reconquered most of the disputed territories for Egypt. The memory of Seti Is military successes was recorded in large scenes placed on the front of the temple of Amun. He was considered a king by his peers, but his fame has been overshadowed since ancient times by that of his son. Seti Is reign length was either 11 or 15 full years, Egyptologist Kenneth Kitchen has estimated that it was 15 years, but there are no dates recorded for Seti I after his Year 11 Gebel Barkal stela. As he is quite well documented in historical records, other scholars suggest that a continuous break in the record for his last four years is unlikely. Peter J. Brand noted that the king personally opened new rock quarries at Aswan to build obelisks and this event is commemorated on two rock stelas in Aswan. Ramesses II used the prenomen Usermaatre to refer to himself in his first year and he made great barges for transporting them, and ships crews to match them for ferrying them from the quarry. However, despite this promise, Brand stresses that The German Egyptologist Jürgen von Beckerath also accepts that Seti Is reign lasted only 11 Years. Seti Is accession date has been determined by Wolfgang Helck to be III Shemu day 24, in 2011, Jacobus van Dijk questioned the Year 11 stated on the Gebel Barkal stela. This monument is badly preserved but still depicts Seti I in erect posture. Furthermore, the glyphs I ∩ representing the 11 are damaged in the upper part and may just as well be I I I instead. Subsequently, Van Dijk proposed that the Gebel Barkal stela is dated to Year 3 of Seti I, and that Setis highest date more likely is Year 9 as suggested by the wine jars found in his tomb. In a 2012 paper, David Aston analyzed the wine jars, Seti I fought a series of wars in western Asia, Libya and Nubia in the first decade of his reign. The Ways of Horus consisted of a series of forts, each with a well

Seti I
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Image of Seti I from his temple in Abydos
Seti I
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Hieroglyphs from the tomb of Seti I
Seti I
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Temple of Seti I at Abydos
Seti I
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Astronomical ceiling of Seti I tomb showing the personified representations of stars and constellations

8.
Mortuary Temple of Seti I
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The Mortuary Temple of Seti I is the memorial temple of the New Kingdom Pharaoh Seti I. It is located in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River Nile from the city of Luxor. The edifice is situated near the town of Qurna, the temple seems to have been constructed toward the end of the reign on Seti, and may have been completed by his son Ramesses the Great after his death. One of the chambers contains a dedicated to Setis father Ramesses I. The ruler reigned a little under two years, and did not construct a temple for himself. The entire court and any pylons associated with the site are now in ruins, and much of the eastern part of the complex is buried under the modern town of Qurna

Mortuary Temple of Seti I
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View of remaining buildings in the Mortuary Temple of Seti I
Mortuary Temple of Seti I
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Plan of the temple
Mortuary Temple of Seti I
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Hieroglyphs from the temple, now relocated to Karnak
Mortuary Temple of Seti I
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Temple sites

9.
Kurna
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Kurna are various spelling for a group of three closely related villages located on the West Bank of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor in Egypt near the Theban Hills. New Qurna was designed and built in the late 1940s and early 1950s by Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy to house people living in Qurna which is now uninhabited, the name Kurna signifies a promontory or a point of a mountain. Gourna is first mentioned by Protais and Charles François dOrléans, two Capuchin missionary brothers travelling in Upper Egypt in 1668, protais’ writing about their travel was published by Melchisédech Thévenot and Johann Michael Vansleb. UNESCO World Heritage conservation wishes to safeguard this important architectural site, the World Monuments Fund included New Qurna in the 2010 World Monuments Watch List of Most Endangered Sites. Qurna is a village about 100m to the east of the Temple of Seti I. Until the early 19th century the community included at least parts of the Temple of Seti I, several travellers, including Richard Pococke or Sonnini de Manoncourt even name a Sheikh of Qurna. Edward William Lane relates in 1825 that the village was abandoned, comments by Isabella Frances Romer suggests that the resettling started in the late 1840s. New Qurna was built in the 1940s and early 1950 to house the residents who strongly resisted the move. A series of housing built in and around the mountain located about 200m north of the Ramesseum at Sheikh ‘Adb el-Qurna

Kurna
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Village of Qurna
Kurna
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Street in New Gourna
Kurna
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Temple of Seti I at Qurna.

10.
Ramesses I
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Menpehtyre Ramesses I was the founding pharaoh of ancient Egypts 19th dynasty. The dates for his reign are not completely known but the time-line of late 1292–1290 BC is frequently cited as well as 1295–1294 BC. Originally called Pa-ra-mes-su, Ramesses I was of non-royal birth, being born into a military family from the Nile delta region. He was a son of a commander called Seti. His uncle Khaemwaset, an officer, married Tamwadjesy, the matron of the Harem of Amun, who was a relative of Huy, the viceroy of Kush. This shows the status of Ramesses family. Ramesses I found favor with Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous Eighteenth dynasty, upon his accession, Ramesses assumed a prenomen, or royal name, which is written in Egyptian hieroglyphs to the right. When transliterated, the name is mn-pḥty-r‘, which is interpreted as Menpehtyre. However, he is known by his nomen, or personal name. This is transliterated as r‘-ms-sw, and is realised as Ramessu or Ramesses. Already an old man when he was crowned, Ramesses appointed his son, Seti was charged with undertaking several military operations during this time– in particular, an attempt to recoup some of Egypts lost possessions in Syria. Ramesses appears to have charge of domestic matters, most memorably, he completed the second pylon at Karnak Temple. Jürgen von Beckerath observes that Ramesses I died just 5 months later—in June 1290 BC—since his son Seti I succeeded to power on III Shemu day 24. Ramesses Is only known action was to order the provision of endowments for the aforementioned Nubian temple at Buhen and the construction of a chapel, the aged Ramesses was buried in the Valley of the Kings. His tomb, discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817 and designated KV16, is small in size, the red granite sarcophagus too was painted rather than carved with inscriptions which, due to their hasty preparation, included a number of unfortunate errors. Seti I, his son and successor, later built a chapel with fine reliefs in memory of his deceased father Ramesses I at Abydos. In 1911, John Pierpont Morgan donated several exquisite reliefs from this chapel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a mummy currently believed to be that of Ramesses I was stolen from Egypt and displayed in a Canadian museum for many years before being repatriated. Moreover, the arms were found crossed high across his chest which was a position reserved solely for Egyptian royalty until 600 BC

Ramesses I
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Pharaoh Ramses I making an offering before Osiris, Allard Pierson Museum.
Ramesses I
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Stone head carving of Paramessu (Ramesses I), originally part of a statue depicting him as a scribe. On display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Ramesses I
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Reliefs from the Abydos chapel of Ramesses I. The chapel was specifically built and dedicated by Seti I in memory of his late father.

11.
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
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The Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt collectively mark the New Kingdom. The latter two dynasties constitute an era known as the Ramesside period, the Twentieth Dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period. The Pharaohs of the 20th dynasty ruled for approximately 120 years, the dates and names in the table are mostly taken from Chronological Table for the Dynastic Period in Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss & David Warburton, Ancient Egyptian Chronology, Brill,2006. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes, more information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. Pharaoh Setnakhte was likely already middle aged when he took the throne after Queen Twosret and he ruled for only around 4 years when he was succeeded by his son Ramesses III. Egypt was threatened by the Sea Peoples during this time period, the king is also known for a harem conspiracy in which Queen Tiye attempted to assassinate the king and put her son Pentawere on the throne. The coup was not successful in the end, the king may have died from the attempt on his life, but it was his legitimate heir Ramesses IV who succeeded him to the throne. After this a succession of kings named Ramesses take the throne, the period of these rulers is notable for the beginning of the systematic robbing of the royal tombs. Many surviving administrative documents from this period are records of investigations and punishment for crimes, especially in the reigns of Ramses IX. As happened under the earlier Nineteenth Dynasty, this group struggled under the effects of the bickering between the heirs of Ramesses III, for instance, three different sons of Ramesses III are known to have assumed power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII respectively. Smendes would eventually found the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis, the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt was the last of the New Kingdom of Egypt. The familial relationships are unclear, especially towards the end of the dynasty, pharaoh is a historical novel by Bolesław Prus, set in Egypt at the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, which adds two fictional rulers, Ramesses XII and Ramesses XIII. It has been adapted into a film of the same title

Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
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Ramesses III, was the son of Sethnakht. During his reign, he fought off the invasions of the Sea Peoples in Egypt and tolerated their settlement in Canaan. A conspiracy was hatched to kill him, but it failed. He was later murdered. His mummy, long an inspiration for the scary Hollywood films, showed his throat was slit.
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
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Ramesses IV was the fifth son of Ramesses III. He assumed the throne after his four older brothers had died.
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
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Ramesses VI was an uncle of Ramesses V. He usurped his predecessors throne and later his tomb, KV9.
Twentieth dynasty of Egypt
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Ramesses VII was the son of Ramesses VI During his reign, prices of grain soared to the highest levels. His mummy has never been found but cups bearing his name were found in the royal cache at Deir el-Bahri. He was buried in KV1. Above is a scene from KV1, open since antiquity.

12.
Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion, Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain an account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ras daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another, Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians understanding of the gods and it inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, in literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace, Egyptologists must make educated guesses about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians natural surroundings, thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption, unusually low floods resulted in famine, the hospitable Nile valley was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an place of stability, or maat. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought, another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are based directly on them. But it is difficult to determine whether a cultures myths developed before rituals or vice versa, questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths, rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, but because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called magical, the myth, many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals texts are not found in other sources

Egyptian mythology
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Nun, the embodiment of the primordial waters, lifts the barque of the sun god Ra into the sky at the moment of creation.
Egyptian mythology
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The sky depicted as a cow goddess supported by other deities. This image combines several coexisting visions of the sky: as a roof, as the surface of a sea, as a cow, and as a goddess in human form.
Egyptian mythology
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Temple decoration at Dendera, depicting the goddesses Isis and Nephthys watching over the corpse of their brother Osiris
Egyptian mythology
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The air god Shu, assisted by other gods, holds up Nut, the sky, as Geb, the earth, lies beneath.

13.
Paganism
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Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural

14.
Polytheism
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Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did

15.
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts, the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body, the other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat. An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb, the heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the childs mothers heart, taken at conception. To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and this is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word jb. This word was transcribed by E. A. Wallis Budge as Ab, in Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the world, where it gave evidence for, or against. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony, if the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit. A persons shadow or silhouette, Sheut, is always present, because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows, the shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people had a box in which part of their Sheut was stored. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name, a cartouche often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the insertion of the name of a successor. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read, the Bâ was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of personality. In the Coffin Texts one form of the Bâ that comes into existence after death is corporeal, louis Žabkar argued that the Bâ is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The word bau, plural of the ba, meant something similar to impressiveness, power. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the Bau of the deity were at work. The Ka was the Egyptian concept of essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body

Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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This golden Ba amulet from the Ptolemaic period would have been worn as an apotropaic device. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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Ba takes the form of a bird with a human head.

16.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, the gods complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities, family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities diverse appearances in art—as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold the highest position in society, including the solar deity Ra, the mysterious god Amun. The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world, some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities. Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events, people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for help, used rituals to compel deities to act. Humans relations with their gods were a part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count, Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, the Egyptian languages terms for these beings were nṯr, god, and its feminine form nṯrt, goddess. Scholars have tried to discern the nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity, the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, the Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, gods, from rmṯ, people, but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life, Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity. One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, according to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, gods included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt

Ancient Egyptian deities
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The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Isis, a mother goddess and a patroness of kingship, holds Pharaoh Seti I in her lap.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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The sky goddess Nut swallows the sun, which travels through her body at night to be reborn at dawn.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Deities personifying provinces of Egypt

17.
Anput
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Anput is a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. Her name is also rendered Input, Inpewt and Yineput and her name is written in hieroglyphs as inpwt. Her name is the version of the name of her husband. She was the goddess of funerals and mummification, the mother of Kebechet and she was depicted as a woman wearing a standard topped by a jackal, or as a large black dog or jackal. Probably the most notable example is that of the triad of Menkaure, Hathor and she was occasionally depicted as a woman with the head of a jackal, but this is very rare. Anput is a counterpart of the god Anubis. She is also a goddess of the nome of Upper Egypt

18.
Anubis
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Anubis or Anpu is the Greek name of a god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts, depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty, Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld, one of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the Weighing of the Heart, despite being one of the most ancient and one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths. Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized both rebirth and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming, Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dogs head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined and his daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet. Anubis is a Greek rendering of this gods Egyptian name, in Egypts Early Dynastic period, Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a jackal head and body. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, the oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead and he was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom. In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to them to Osiris. The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources, in early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period, another tradition depicted him as the son of his father Ra and mother Nephthys. George Hart sees this story as an attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osirian pantheon, an Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period simply called Anubis the son of Isis. In the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, the two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means city of dogs, in Book XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages, in contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role, the Jumilhac papyrus recounts another tale where Anubis protected the body of Osiris from Set. Set attempted to attack the body of Osiris by transforming himself into a leopard, Anubis stopped and subdued Set, however, and he branded Sets skin with a hot iron rod

Anubis
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Anubis attending the mummy of the deceased.
Anubis
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Statue of Hermanubis, a hybrid of Anubis and the Greek god Hermes (Vatican Museums)
Anubis
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The "weighing of the heart," from the book of the dead of Hunefer. Anubis is portrayed as both guiding the deceased forward and manipulating the scales, under the scrutiny of the ibis-headed Thoth.
Anubis
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A crouching or "recumbent" statue of Anubis as a black-coated wolf (from the Tomb of Tutankhamun)

19.
Anuket
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Anuket was the personification and goddess of the Nile river in the Egyptian mythology in Elephantine, at the start of the Niles journey through Egypt, and in nearby regions of Nubia. In Ancient Egyptian, she was known as Anuket, Anaka and her name meant the Clasper or Embracer. In Greek, this became Anoukis, sometimes also spelled Anukis, in the interpretatio graeca, she was considered equivalent to Hestia or Vesta. Anuket was usually depicted as a woman with a headdress of either reed or ostrich feathers and she was usually depicted as holding a Sceptre topped with an ankh, and her sacred animal was the gazelle. She was also shown suckling the Pharaoh through the New Kingdom, in later periods, she was assoiciated with the Cowry, especially the shell, which resembled the vagina. She was originally the daughter of Ra, but was related to Satet in some way. For example, both goddesses were called the Eye of Ra, along with Bastet, Hathor, and Sekhmet, also, they were both related in some way to the Uraeus. Anuket was part of a triad with the god Khnum, and she may have been the sister of the goddess Satis or she may have been a junior consort to Khnum instead. A temple dedicated to Anuket was erected on the Island of Seheil, inscriptions show that a shrine or altar was dedicated to her at this site by the 13th dynasty Pharaoh Sobekhotep III. Much later, during the 18th dynasty, Amenhotep II dedicated a chapel to the goddess, during the New Kingdom, Anuket’s cult at Elephantine included a river procession of the goddess during the first month of Shemu. Inscriptions mention the processional festival of Khnum and Anuket during this time period, ceremonially, when the Nile started its annual flood, the Festival of Anuket began. People threw coins, gold, jewelry, and precious gifts into the river, in thanks for the life-giving water, Anoukis, Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. Vol. II, New York, Charles Scribners Sons,1878, p.90

20.
Apep
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Apep or Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos and was thus the opponent of light and Maat. He appears in art as a giant serpent and his name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāpī, as it was written ꜥꜣpp and survived in later Coptic as Ⲁⲫⲱⲫ Aphōph. Apep was first mentioned in the Eighth Dynasty, and he was honored in the names of the Fourteenth Dynasty king Apepi, Ra was the solar deity, bringer of light, and thus the upholder of Maat. Apep was viewed as the greatest enemy of Ra, and thus was given the title Enemy of Ra, as the personification of all that was evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake or serpent leading to such titles as Serpent from the Nile and Evil Lizard. Some elaborations said that he stretched 16 yards in length and had a made of flint. Also, comparable hostile snakes as enemies of the sun god existed under other names already before the name Apep occurred, the etymology of his name is perhaps to be sought in some west-semitic language where a word root ꜣpp meaning to slither existed. A verb root ꜥꜣpp does at any rate not exist elsewhere in Ancient Egyptian, Apeps name much later came to be falsely connected etymologically in Egyptian with a different root meaning spat out, the Romans referred to Apep by this translation of his name. Apophis was a golden snake known to be miles long. He was so large that he attempted to swallow the sun every day, tales of Apeps battles against Ra were elaborated during the New Kingdom. Storytellers said that every day Apep must lie just below the horizon and this appropriately made him a part of the underworld. In some stories Apep waited for Ra in a mountain called Bakhu, where the sun set. The wide range of Apeps possible location gained him the title World Encircler and it was thought that his terrifying roar would cause the underworld to rumble. Myths sometimes say that Apep was trapped there, because he had been the chief god overthrown by Ra. The Coffin Texts imply that Apep used a magical gaze to overwhelm Ra, Ra was assisted by a number of defenders who travelled with him, including Set and possibly the Eye of Ra. Apeps movements were thought to cause earthquakes, and his battles with Set may have meant to explain the origin of thunderstorms. In some accounts, Ra himself defeats Apep in the form of a cat, Ra was worshipped, and Apep worshipped against. Ras victory each night was thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests, the Egyptians practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to continue his journey across the sky. The Egyptian priests had a guide to fighting Apep, referred to as The Books of Overthrowing Apep

21.
Ash (deity)
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Ash was the ancient Egyptian god of oases, as well as the vineyards of the western Nile Delta and thus was viewed as a benign deity. Flinders Petrie in his 1923 expedition to the Saqqara found several references to Ash in Old Kingdom wine jar seals, in particular, he was identified by the Ancient Egyptians as the god of the Libu and Tinhu tribes, known as the people of the oasis. Consequently Ash was known as the lord of Libya, the border areas occupied by the Libu and Tinhu tribes. It is also possible that he was worshiped in Ombos, as their chief deity. In Egyptian mythology, as god of the oases, Ash was associated with Set, who was god of the desert. Ashs importance was such that he was mentioned even until the 26th Dynasty, Ash was usually depicted as a human, whose head was one of the desert creatures, variously being shown as a lion, vulture, hawk, snake, or the unidentified Set-animal. Indeed, depictions of Ash are the earliest known depictions, in ancient Egyptian art, some depictions of Ash show him as having multiple heads, unlike other Egyptian deities, although some compound depictions were occasionally shown connecting gods to Min. The idea of Ash as a god is contested, as he was the god of Ombos long before Sets introduction sometime in the 2nd Dynasty. One of his titles is Nebuty or He of Nebut indicating this position, Ash is sometimes seen as another name for Set—similarly as one might give the name Ta-Bitjet for Serket, Dunanwy for Anti, or Sefkhet-Abwy for Sheshat

22.
Aten
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Aten is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of the god Ra. The deified Aten is the focus of the religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, in his poem Great Hymn to the Aten, Akhenaten praises Aten as the creator, giver of life, and nurturing spirit of the world. Aten does not have a Creation Myth or family, but is mentioned in the Book of the Dead, the worship of Aten was eradicated by Horemheb. By analogy, the term silver aten was sometimes used to refer to the moon, the solar Aten was extensively worshipped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III, when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. The full title of Akhenatens god was Ra-Horakhty who rejoices in the horizon, the god is also considered to be both masculine and feminine simultaneously. All creation was thought to emanate from the god and to exist within the god, in particular, the god was not depicted in anthropomorphic form, but as rays of light extending from the suns disk. Furthermore, the name came to be written within a cartouche, along with the titles normally given to a Pharaoh. Ra-Horus, more usually referred to as Ra-Horakhty, is a synthesis of two gods, both of which are attested from very early on. During the Amarna period, this synthesis was seen as the source of energy of the sun god, of which the visible manifestation was the Aten. Thus Ra-Horus-Aten was a development of old ideas which came gradually, the real change, as some see it, was the apparent abandonment of all other gods, especially Amun-Ra, prohibition of idolatry, and the debatable introduction of quasi-monotheism by Akhenaten. The syncretism is readily apparent in the Great Hymn to the Aten in which Re-Herakhty, Shu, others see Akhenaten as a practitioner of an Aten monolatry, as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods, he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten. Other scholars call the religion henotheistic, principles of Atens religion were recorded on the rock tomb walls of Akhetaten. In the religion of Aten, night is a time to fear, work is done best when the sun, Aten, is present. Aten cares for every creature, and created a Nile river in the sky for the Syrians, Aten created all countries and people. The rays of the sun disk only holds out life to the family, everyone else receives life from Akhenaten. When a good person dies, he/she continues to live in the City of Light for the dead in Akhetaten, the conditions are the same after death. Akhenaten judged whether someone should be granted an afterlife, and operated the scale of justice, the explanation as to why Aten could not be fully represented was that the god has gone beyond creation. The cult centre of Aten was at the new city Akhetaten, some other cities include Thebes

Aten
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Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family adoring the Aten, second from the left is Meritaten who was the daughter of Akhenaten.
Aten
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Small Temple of the Aten at Akhetaten
Aten
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Pharaohs

23.
Banebdjedet
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Banebdjedet was an Ancient Egyptian ram god with a cult centre at Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt and his wife was the goddess Hatmehit who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes. Their offspring was Horus the Child and they formed the so-called Mendesian Triad, the words for ram and soul sounded the same in Egyptian so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods. Typically Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams heads to represent the four Bas of the sun god and he may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt, with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary. The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the Ram of Mendes as being the Ba of Osiris but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the Divine Tribunal to judge between Horus and Seth but he proposes that Neith do it instead as an act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the elder brother. In a chapel in the Ramesseum, a stela records how the god Ptah took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of his virility, in order to have union with the woman who would conceive Rameses II

Banebdjedet
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Banebdjedet

24.
Bes
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Bes and its feminine counterpart Beset are an Ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households, and in particular, of mothers and children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good, while past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia, more recent research indicates that he was present in Egypt since the start of Old Kingdom. Mentions of Bes can be traced to pre-dynastic Nile Valley cultures, modern scholars such as James Romano claim that in its earliest inception Bes was a representation of a lion rearing up on its hind legs. After the Third Intermediate Period, Bes is often seen as just the head or the face, images of the deity were kept in homes and he was depicted quite differently from the other gods. Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes appeared in portrait, ithyphallic and he scared away demons from houses, so his statue was put up as a protector. Since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life - music, dance, many instances of Bes masks and costumes from the New Kingdom and later have been uncovered. These show considerable wear, thought to be too great for occasional use at festivals, in the New Kingdom, tattoos of Bes could be found on the thighs of dancers, musicians and servant girls. In the late 500s BC, images of Bes began to spread across the Persian Empire, images of Bes have been found at the Persian capital of Susa, and as far away as central Asia. Over time, the image of Bes became more Persian in style, as he was depicted wearing Persian clothes, the Balearic island of Ibiza derives its actual name from this god, brought along with the first Phoenician settlers 654 BC. These settlers, amazed at the lack of any sort of creatures on the island thought it to be the island of Bes. Bes is an important character in the books of the saga The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, Bes appears, as part of the delegation of Egyptian gods, in The Sandman, Season of Mists, by Neil Gaiman. Bes is a friend and helper to the heroes in Pyramid Scheme by Eric Flint and Dave Freer Statue of official Bes The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, ISBN 0-500-05120-8 The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw. Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece

25.
Buchis
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In Egyptian mythology, Buchis was the manifestation of the deification of Ka of the war god Montu, worshipped in the region of Hermonthis. A wild bull was chosen and said to be the Buchis incarnation of Montu, over time, the criteria for choosing the bull became more rigid, fixing themselves on what had been simply the general appearance of bulls in the region, being a white body and black face. When these bulls, or their mothers, died, they were mummified, the mothers of these bulls were considered aspects of Hathor, the mother of these deities. Eventually, the Bakha was identified as a form of the Apis, the last burial of a Buchis bull in the Bucheum at Hermonthis occurred in 340 A. D. The worship of the bull in this form lasted until about 362 AD, mnevis Apis Bull Hermonthis The last funerary stela of a Buchis bull British Museum page about Buchis

Buchis
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A stele commemorating the burial of a Bakha bearing the iconography of Hathor

26.
Hapi (Son of Horus)
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This article is about the funerary deity. Hapi can also refer to Hapi, a Nile god, or Hapi-ankh, Hapi, sometimes transliterated as Hapy, is one of the Four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian religion, depicted in funerary literature as protecting the throne of Osiris in the Underworld. Hapi was the son of Heru-ur and Isis or Serqet and he is not to be confused with another god of the same name. Hapi is in turn protected by the goddess Nephthys, when his image appears on the side of a coffin, he is usually aligned with the side intended to face north. When embalming practices changed during the Third Intermediate Period and the organs were placed back inside the body. Since drowning was the form of death associated with the lungs, the spelling of his name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat, although its exact nature is not known. For this reason he was connected with navigation, although early references call him the great runner. As one of the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven he was associated with the North, Four Sons of Horus – in-depth treatment of the Four Sons and their interrelationships

Hapi (Son of Horus)
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Hapi in the Übersee-Museum

27.
Heh (god)
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Ḥeḥ was in Egyptian mythology, the deification of infinity or eternity in the Ogdoad, his name itself meaning endlessness. His female counterpart was known as Hauhet, which is simply the feminine form of his name, like the other concepts in the Ogdoad, his male form was often depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed human, and his female form as a snake or snake-headed human. Depictions of this also had a shen ring at the base of each palm stem. Depictions of Huh were also used in hieroglyphs to represent one million, thus this deity is also known as the god of millions of years. The primary meaning of the term ḥeḥ was million or millions, subsequently, together with his female counterpart Ḥauḥet, Ḥeḥ represented a member of the Ogdoad of eight primeval deities whose worship was centred at Hermopolis Magna. The other members of the Ogdoad are Nu and Naunet, Amun and Amaunet, Kuk, the god Ḥeḥ was usually depicted anthropomorphically, as in the hieroglyphic character, as a male figure with divine beard and lappet wig. Normally kneeling, the god typically holds in each hand a palm branch. Occasionally, a palm branch is worn on the gods head. The personified, somewhat abstract god of eternity Ḥeḥ possessed no known cult centre or sanctuary, rather, his veneration revolved around symbolism, barta, Winfried, Die Bedeutung der Personifikation Huh im Unterschied zu den Personifikationen Hah und Nun, Göttinger Miszellen 127, pp. 7–12

28.
Heka (god)
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Heka was the deification of magic in ancient Egypt. The name is the Egyptian word for magic, according to Egyptian writing, Heka existed before duality had yet come into being. The term Heka was also used to refer to the practice of magical rituals, the word Heka means action of the Ka or activation of the Ka, the Ka being the ancient Egyptian concept of the vital force. Egyptians believed that activating this power of the soul was how magic worked, Heka also implied great power and influence, particularly when drawing upon the Ka of the gods. In the Coffin Texts, Heka is created at the beginning of time by the creator Atum and he was also said to be the son of Khnum, who created specific individual Ba. As the son of Khnum, his mother was said to be Menhit, the hieroglyph for his name featured a twist of flax within a pair of raised arms, however, it also vaguely resembles a pair of entwined snakes within someones arms. Consequently, Heka was said to have battled and conquered two serpents, and was depicted as a man choking two giant entwined serpents. Medicine and doctors were thought to be a form of magic, so Hekas priesthood performed these activities

Heka (god)
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Heka (Ḥkȝ)

29.
Hemen
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In Egyptian mythology, Hemen was a falcon–god. Often worshipped as a divine entity unified with Horus, as Horus-Hemen lord of Asphynis or Horakhte-Hemen of Hefat W. M. Flinders Petrie refers to Hemen as a god of Tuphium, Hemen is also used for the name of a town of ancient Egypt. Hemen is mentioned in a number of inscriptions and texts. Some of these include, In the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 231, ankhtifi, a monarch dated to the first intermediate period, is shown inspecting a fleet, killing a hippopotamus in Hefat during festivities and offering the hippopotamus to Hemen. A round topped stela from the 13th dynasty invokes Ptah-Sokari-Osiris and Horus-Hemen lord of Asphynis, the stela was formerly in the V. Golenishchev collection, but is now in Moscow, in the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The chief sculptor Userhat who lived at the end of the 18th dynasty / beginning 19th dynasty mentions causing cult statues to rest in their shrine, Hemen of Hefat is one of the gods listed among those Userhat was responsible for. Statue from the time of Amenhotep III, Now in Avignon, in the 22nd dynasty Hemen of Hefat is mentioned as an oracle. A man named Ikeni appears before Hemen in Hefat and the god says Ikeni is right, taharqa is shown before the god Hemen in a statue which is now in the Louvre. In ca 300 BC Hemens cult is active as attested by an inscription of an official named Hornefer. In the Griffiths Institute listing, A stone object with Hemen possibly hawk-headed showing text of Amenophis III‘beloved of Hemen lord of the sed-festival’. Sed festival Crime, Cult and Capital Punishment by H. Willems, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Vol.76, pp. 27–54, Retrieved 11 April 2015

Hemen
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Taharqa offering before Hemen. Statue from the Louvre.
Hemen
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Different perspective showing Hemen in more detail.

30.
Hemsut
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In Egyptian mythology, Hemsut were the Goddesses of Fate, destiny and protection in Ancient Egypt. They were closely associated with the concept of the ka and could be seen as the personification of the masculine ka. They could also be seen as the personification of the potential in the primeaval water from which everything was created. They were generally depicted as bearing a shield with two crossed arrows above it. Occasionally, they were depicted as kneeling women holding a child in their arms. According to the Memphite Theology they were created by Ptah but in Sais they were connected with Neith who was said to have drawn them from the waters of Nun

31.
Heqet
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Heqet is an Egyptian goddess of fertility, identified with Hathor, represented in the form of a frog. To the Egyptians, the frog was an ancient symbol of fertility, Heqet was originally the female counterpart of Khnemu, or the wife of Khnemu by whom she became the mother of Heru-ur. The name is written as ḥqt with the frog, or alternatively as ḥqtyt with the egg determinative. Its Middle Egyptian proununciation may have close to /ħaˈqaːtat/, whence possibly the name of Greek Hecate. The beginning of her dates to the early dynastic period at least. Her name was part of the names of some high-born Second Dynasty individuals buried at Helwan and was mentioned on a stela of Wepemnofret, early frog statuettes are often thought to be depictions of her. Later, as a fertility goddess, associated explicitly with the last stages of the flooding of the Nile and this association, which appears to have arisen during the Middle Kingdom, gained her the title She who hastens the birth. Some say that—even though no ancient Egyptian term for midwife is known for certain—midwives often called themselves the Servants of Heqet, women often wore amulets of her during childbirth, which depicted Heqet as a frog, sitting in a lotus. Heqet was considered the wife of Khnum, who formed the bodies of new children on his potters wheel, in the Osiris myth, it was Heqet who breathed life into the new body of Horus at birth, as she was a goddess of the last moments of birth. As the birth of Horus became more associated with the resurrection of Osiris. Eventually, this led to her amulets gaining the phrase I am the resurrection in the Christian era along with cross. A temple dedicated to Horus and Heqet dating to the Ptolemaic Period was found at Qus, media related to Heqet at Wikimedia Commons

32.
Heryshaf
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In Egyptian mythology, Heryshaf, or Hershef, transcribed in Greek as Arsaphes or Harsaphes was an ancient ram-god whose cult was centered in Heracleopolis Magna. He was identified with Ra and Osiris in Egyptian mythology, as well as Dionysus or Heracles in Greek mythology, the identification with Heracles may be related to the fact that in later times his name was sometimes reanalysed as Ḥry-šf. t He who is over strength. One of his titles was Ruler of the Riverbanks, Heryshaf was a creator and fertility god who was born from the primordial waters. He was pictured as a man with the head of a ram, the Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses

33.
Ihy
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Ihy is a god in ancient Egyptian mythology who represents the ecstasy of playing the sistrum. His name may mean sistrum player, referring to his function and this is in allusion to his relationship with the cow goddess Hathor who was often said to be his mother. Other goddesses might be called his mother, however, including Isis, Sekhmet, the god Horus is Ihys father. Ihy was depicted as a holding a sistrum or as a nude child with his finger in his mouth. He was worshiped alongside Horus and Hathor at Dendera, Hathor was his mother and Horus as his father Media related to Ihy at Wikimedia Commons

34.
Isis
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Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis

35.
Iusaaset
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Iusaset or Iusaas is the name of a primal goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. She also is described as the grandmother of all of the deities, many alternative spellings of her name include Iusaaset, Juesaes, Ausaas, and Jusas, as well as in Greek Saosis /ˌseɪˈoʊsᵻs/. In Ancient Egyptian art, Iusaaset appears as a woman wearing the horned vulture crown with the uraeus and the disk in it, and she carries an ankh in one hand. The Egyptian vulture, most sacred to the ancient Egyptians and symbolizing Nekhbet and this association might be the basis for the similar view about the motherhood of Iusaaset. The vultures also were considered extremely good mothers, the horns, the uraeus, and the solar disk make a religious connection to Bat and Hathor. Because of Iusaaset’s link to the vulture and uraeus, it can be assumed that she links together both upper and lower Egypt, much like the goddess Mut who she is associated with. Although her origins are unclear, Iusaaset seems to be attested quite early in the Egyptian pantheon, being associated with creation and the creation of the deities. Many myths relate that she was seen as the mother of the first deities and the grandmother of the following deities, having watched over the birth of the ones that were her grandchildren. She remains as a deity in the pantheon throughout all eras of the culture, even through the Persian, Hyksos, Greek, and Roman occupations. Iusaaset was said to own this tree, the acacia tree was renowned for its strength, hardiness, medical properties, and edibility. Many useful applications gave it a central importance in the culture, one belief held that Iusaaset and Atum were the parents of Shu and Tefnut, the first deities. In this myth she often was described as his shadow, sister, during the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead pharaohs soul from the tomb to the starry heavens. By the time of the New Kingdom, the Atum myth had merged in the Egyptian pantheon with that of Ra, who later was described as a creator and their two identities were joined into Atum-Ra. After they were combined, Ra was seen as the sun and Atum came to be seen as the sun when it sets in the west. At these later times Iusaaset sometimes is described as the eye of Ra

Iusaaset
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The grandmother of the deities, Iusaaset, shown with her horned Egyptian vulture crown with the uraeus and the solar disk in it

36.
Khenti-Amentiu
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Khenti-Amentiu, also Khentiamentiu, Khenti-Amenti, Kenti-Amentiu and many other spellings, is an ancient Egyptian deity whose name was also used as a title for Osiris and Anubis. The name means Foremost of the Westerners or Chief of the Westerners, Khenti-Amentiu was depicted as a jackal-headed deity at Abydos in Upper Egypt, who stood guard over the city of the dead. Khenti-Amentiu is attested early at Abydos, perhaps earlier than the unification of Egypt at the start of the Early Dynastic Period. A temple dating to predynastic times was also founded in Abydos for this god, toby Wilkinson suggests that, even at this early stage, Khenti-Amentius name may have been simply an epithet of Osiris. The roles of Khenti-Amentiu, Osiris, and Anubis underwent considerable changes in the late Old Kingdom, originally, only Anubis name appeared in the offering formula that was believed to allow the dead to partake of the offerings they were given to sustain them in the afterlife. In the Fifth Dynasty, many started to appear in the formula, including Osiris, whose name does not appear in any texts before the start of the dynasty. In the course of the late Old Kingdom, the Khenti-Amentiu title becomes more connected with Osiris. If this is the case, Khenti-Amentiu would have begun to be treated as an independent deity in the Fifth Dynasty. Most inscriptions from that time show Osiris and Khenti-Amentiu were already closely connected, beginning in the First Intermediate Period, Khenti-Amentius temple in Abydos was explicitly dedicated to Osiris and became his major cult center

37.
Khepri
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Khepri is a god in the ancient Egyptian religion. Khepri was connected with the beetle, because the scarab rolls balls of dung across the ground. Khepri was thus a solar deity, young dung beetles, having been laid as eggs within the dung ball, emerge from it fully formed. Therefore, Khepri also represented creation and rebirth, and he was connected with the rising sun. The Egyptians connected his name with the Egyptian language verb kheper, Kheper, is a transcription of an ancient Egyptian word meaning to come into being, to change, to occur, to happen, to exist, to bring about, to create, etc. Egyptologists typically transliterate the word as. pr, both Kheper and Xeper possess the same phonetic value and are pronounced as kheffer. There was no cult devoted to Khepri, and he was subordinate to the greater sun god Ra. Often, Khepri and another deity, Atum, were seen as aspects of Ra, Khepri was the morning sun, Ra was the midday sun. Khepri was principally depicted as a beetle, though in some tomb paintings. He is also depicted as a scarab in a solar barque held aloft by Nun, the scarab amulets that the Egyptians used as jewelry and as seals represent Khepri. Media related to Khepri at Wikimedia Commons

Khepri
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Khepri is often represented as a scarab, or a scarab-headed man, holding aloft the morning sun.

38.
Khnum
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Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River. He later was described as having moulded the other deities, and he had the titles Divine Potter, Khnum was the god of rebirth, creation and the evening sun, although this is usually the function of Atum. The worship of Khnum centered on two principal sites, Elephantine Island and Esna, which were regarded as sacred sites. At Elephantine, he was worshipped alongside Anuket and Satet as the guardian of the source of the Nile River. His significance led to early theophoric names of him, for children, such as Khnum-Khufwy – Khnum is my Protector, Khnum has also been related to the deity Min. The temple at Elephantine was dedicated to Khnum, his consort Satet, the temple dates back to at least the Middle Kingdom. By the 11th dynasty Khnum, Satet and Anuket are all attested at Elephantine, during the New Kingdom finds from the time of Ramesses II show Khnum was still worshipped there. Opposite Elephantine, on the east bank at Aswan, Khnum, in Esna, known as Iunyt or Ta-senet to the Ancient Egyptians, a temple was dedicated to Khnum, Neith and Heka, and other deities. The temple dates to the Ptolemaic period, Khnum is sometimes depicted as a crocodile-headed god. Nebt-uu and Menhit are Khnums principal consorts and Heka is his eldest son, both Khnum and Neith are referred to as creator deities in the texts at Esna. Khnum is sometimes referred to as the father of the fathers and they later become the parents of Re, who is also referred to as Khnum-Re. The Beit el-Wali temple of Ramesses II contained statues of Khnum, Satis and Anukis, along with statues of Isis and Horus

39.
Maahes
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Maahes was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, whose name means he who is true beside her. He was seen as the son of the Creator god Ptah, Maahes was a deity associated with war, protection, and weather, as well as that of knives, lotuses, and devouring captives. His cult was centred in Taremu and Per-Bast, the first recorded reference to Maahes is from the New Kingdom. As a lion-god and patron, he was considered the son of Ra and of Bast, the feline war goddess and patron of Lower Egypt as well as Sekhmet. Since his cult was centred in Per-Bast or in Taremu, he was known as the son of Bast. As he became a deity of Egypt, his father was said to be the chief male deity at the time - either Ptah. In his role of son of Ra, Maahes fought the serpent Apep during Ras nightly voyage, considered to have powerful attributes, feline deities were associated with the pharaohs, and became patrons of Egypt. The male lion hieroglyphic was used in such as prince, mashead, strength. The name of Maahes begins with the hieroglyphs for the male lion, although in isolation it also means see in front. However, the first glyph also is part of the glyph for Maat, meaning truth and order and so it came to be that Maahes was considered to be the devourer of the guilty and protector of the innocent. Some of the titles of Maahes were Lord of Slaughter, Wielder of the Knife, Maahes was pictured as a man with the head of a male lion, occasionally holding a knife and wearing the double crown of Egypt, or the atef crown. Sometimes he was identified with Nefertem and was shown with a bouquet of lotuses near him, tame lions were kept in a temple dedicated to Maahes in Taremu, where Bast/Sekhmet were worshipped, his temple was adjacent to that of Bast. The ancient Greek historian Aelian wrote, In Egypt, they worship lions, media related to Maahes at Wikimedia Commons Caroline Seawright, Maahes, God of War and Protection, The Leonine Lord of Slaughter

40.
Mandulis
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The Temple of Kalabsha in Nubia was dedicated to Mandulis which was a Nubian form of Horus. A cult dedicated to Mandulis can also be found in Egypt, Mandulis was often depicted wearing an elaborate headdress of rams horns, cobras and plumes surmounted by sun discs. He was sometimes shown in the form of a hawk, but wearing a human head

Mandulis
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An image of Mandulis from the Temple of Kalabsha in Nubia
Mandulis
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v

41.
Menhit
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Menhit /ˈmɛnˌhɪt/ was originally a Nubian war goddess in Egyptian mythology. Her name depicts a warrior status, as it means massacres, in the 3rd Nome of Upper Egypt, particularly at Esna, Menhit was said to be the wife of Khnum and the mother of Heka. She was also worshipped in Lower Egypt, where she was linked with the goddesses Wadjet, wiesbaden 1995 Hans Bonnet, Lexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6

Menhit
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Menhit on the left with Khnum on the right, shown on the outside wall of the temple at Esna
Menhit
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v

42.
Meskhenet
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In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Meskhenet, was the goddess of childbirth, and the creator of each childs Ka, a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth. She was worshipped from the earliest of times by Egyptians, in ancient Egypt, women delivered babies while squatting on a pair of bricks, known as birth bricks, and Meskhenet was the goddess associated with this form of delivery. Consequently, in art, she was depicted as a brick with a womans head. At other times she was depicted as a woman with a cows uterus on her headdress. Since she was responsible for creating the Ka, she was associated with fate, thus later she was sometimes said to be paired with Shai, who became a god of destiny after the deity evolved out of an abstract concept. Meskhenet features prominently in the last of the folktales in the Westcar Papyrus, the story tells of the birth of Userkaf, Sahure, and Neferirkare Kakai, the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty, who in the story are said to be triplets. Just after each child is born, Meskhenet appears and prophesies that he become king of Egypt

Meskhenet
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Userkaf, one of the legendary triplets
Meskhenet
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Meskhenet as a birth brick

43.
Nekhbet
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Nekhbet was an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb. Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it was unified, egypt’s oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb, the original necropolis or city of the dead. It was the city to Nekhen, the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of the Predynastic period and probably. The original settlement on the Nekhen site dates from Naqada I or the late Badarian cultures, at its height, from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants. The priestesses of Nekhbet were called muu and wore robes of Egyptian vulture feathers, Nekhbet was the tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. Nekhbet and her Lower Egyptian counterpart Wadjet often appeared together as the Two Ladies, one of the titles of each ruler was the Nebty name, which began with the hieroglyphs for of the Two Ladies. In art, Nekhbet was depicted as a vulture, alan Gardiner identified the species that was used in divine iconography as a griffon vulture. Arielle P. Kozloff, however, argues that the vultures in New Kingdom art, with their beaks and loose skin. In New Kingdom times, the vulture appeared alongside the uraeus on the headdresses with which kings were buried, Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol, frequently in her claws. As patron of the pharaoh, she was seen to be the mother of the divine aspect of the pharaoh, and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers. In some late texts of the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is referred to as Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who existed from the Beginning. Nekhbet is a monster in Final Fantasy 12. Nekhbet appears in Rick Riordans The Throne of Fire as a minor antagonist, Nekhbet is the name of a pet vulture in the anime Tenshi ni Narumon. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6, S. 507f, harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0, S.199. Alexandra von Lieven, Grundriss des Laufes der Sterne – Das sogenannte Nutbuch, the Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies, Kopenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5. Alexandra von Lieven, Der Himmel über Esna – Eine Fallstudie zur religiösen Astronomie in Ägypten am Beispiel der kosmologischen Decken- und Architravinschriften im Tempel von Esna, marcelle Werbrouck, Fouilles de El Kab II

44.
Nephthys
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Nephthys or Nebthet or Neber-Het was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut, Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Nephthys is the Greek form of an epithet and this is a pervasive error repeated in many commentaries concerning this deity. Her name means specifically, Lady of the Enclosure which associates her with the role of priestess. Along with her sister Isis, Nephthys represented the temple pylon or trapezoidal tower gateway entrance to the temple which also displayed the flagstaff and this entrance way symbolised the horizon or akhet. At the time of the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid Texts, Nephthys appears as a goddess of the Heliopolitan Ennead and she is the sister of Isis and companion of the war-like deity, Set. As sister of Isis and especially Osiris, Nephthys is a goddess who symbolizes the death experience. Nephthys was known in some ancient Egyptian temple theologies and cosmologies as the Useful Goddess or the Excellent Goddess and these late Ancient Egyptian temple texts describe a goddess who represented divine assistance and protective guardianship. Nephthys is regarded as the mother of the funerary-deity Anubis in some myths, alternatively Anubis appears as the son of Bastet or Isis. As the primary nursing mother of the incarnate Pharaonic-god, Horus, though other goddesses could assume this role, Nephthys was most usually portrayed in this function. In contrast Nephthys is sometimes featured as a ferocious and dangerous divinity. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Less well understood than her sister Isis, Nephthys was no less important in Egyptian Religion as confirmed by the work of E. Hornung, along with the work of noted scholars. Ascend and descend, descend with Nephthys, sink into darkness with the Night-bark, ascend and descend, ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark. Pyramid Text Utterance 222 line 210, in the funerary role, Nephthys often was depicted as a kite, or as a woman with falcon wings, usually outstretched as a symbol of protection. Nephthyss association with the kite or the Egyptian hawk evidently reminded the ancients of the lamentations usually offered for the dead by wailing women, in this capacity, it is easy to see how Nephthys could be associated with death and putrefaction in the Pyramid Texts. Nephthys was clearly viewed as a force of heavenly transition, i. e. the Pharaoh becomes strong for his journey to the afterlife through the intervention of Isis. The same divine power could be applied later to all of the dead and it should here be noted that Nephthys was not necessarily viewed as the polar opposite of Isis, but rather as a different reflection of the same reality, eternal life in transition

45.
Nut (goddess)
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Nut, also known by various other transcriptions, is the goddess of the sky in the Ennead of ancient Egyptian religion. She was seen as a nude woman arching over the earth. The pronunciation of ancient Egyptian is uncertain because vowels were long omitted from its writing and her name Nwt, itself also meaning Sky, is usually transcribed as Nut but also sometimes appears as Nunut, Nenet, Naunet, Newet, and the certainly erroneous Nuit. She also appears in the record by a number of epithets. Nut is a daughter of Shu and Tefnut and her brother and husband is Geb. She had four or five children, Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys and she is considered one of the oldest deities among the Egyptian pantheon, with her origin being found on the creation story of Heliopolis. She was originally the goddess of the sky, but eventually became referred to as simply the sky goddess. Her headdress was the hieroglyphic of part of her name, a pot, which may also symbolize the uterus. Mostly depicted in human form, Nut was also sometimes depicted in the form of a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens. A sacred symbol of Nut was the used by Osiris to enter her heavenly skies. This ladder-symbol was called maqet and was placed in tombs to protect the deceased, Nut and her brother, Geb, may be considered enigmas in the world of mythology. In direct contrast to most other mythologies which usually develop a sky father associated with an Earth mother, she personified the sky, Osiris is killed by his brother Set and scattered over the Earth in 14 pieces which Isis gathers up and puts back together. Osiris then climbs a ladder into his mother Nut for safety, a huge cult developed about Osiris that lasted well into Roman times. Isis was her husbands queen in the underworld and the basis for the role of the queen on earth. It can be said that she was a version of the great goddess Hathor, like Hathor she not only had death and rebirth associations, but was the protector of children and the goddess of childbirth. Ra, the sun god, was the second to rule the world, Ra was a strong ruler but he feared anyone taking his throne. When he discovered that Nut was to have children, he was furious and he decreed, Nut shall not give birth any day of the year. At that time, the year was only 360 days, Nut spoke to Thoth, god of wisdom, and he had a plan

Nut (goddess)
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Great goddess Nut with her wings stretched across a coffin
Nut (goddess)
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The sky goddess Nut depicted as a cow
Nut (goddess)
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Nut, goddess of sky supported by Shu the god of air, and the ram-headed Heh deities, while the earth god Geb reclines beneath.

46.
Osiris
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Osiris was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning Foremost of the Westerners, as ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called king of the living, ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead the living ones. Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder and he was described as the Lord of love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful and the Lord of Silence. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA, in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is appears as wsjr or jsjrt. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths proposed a derivation from wsr signifying the powerful, moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser. David Lorton proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying ritual activity, wolfhart Westendorf proposed an etymology from Waset-jret she who bears the eye. He also carries the crook and flail, the crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk and he was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green or black in mummiform. The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found, An offering the king gives, by the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes An offering the king gives and Osiris. Osiris is the father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father and this spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus, as such, since Horus was born after Osiris resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Ptah-Seker thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris, Osiris soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes

47.
Pakhet
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In Egyptian mythology, Pakhet, Egyptian Pḫ. t, meaning she who scratches is a lioness goddess of war. Pakhet is likely to be a regional lioness deity, Goddess of the Mouth of the Wadi, related to those that hunted in the wadi, near water at the boundary of the desert. Another title is She Who Opens the Ways of the Stormy Rains, which relates to the flash floods in the narrow valley. She appeared in the Egyptian pantheon during the Middle Kingdom, as with Bastet and Sekhmet, Pakhet is associated with Hathor and, thereby, is a sun deity as well, wearing the solar disk as part of her crown. This desert aspect led to her associated with desert storms. She also was said to be a protector of motherhood, as was Bastet, in art, she was depicted as a feline-headed woman or as a feline, often depicted killing snakes with her sharp claws. The exact nature of the feline varied between a desert wildcat, which was similar to Bastet, or a caracal, resembling Sekhmet. This is in the middle of Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, a tomb on the east bank is not traditional, but the terrain to the west was most difficult. A more ancient temple to this goddess at the location is known but has not survived, hatshepsut is known to have restored temples in this region that had been damaged by the Hyksos invaders. Its remarkable catacombs have been excavated, great numbers of mummified cats have been found buried there. Many are thought to have brought great distances to be buried ceremonially during rituals at the cult center. Some references associate this goddess as Pakhet-Weret-Hekau, implying the association with a such as Hathor or Isis. Another title is Horus Pakhet, the presence of many mumified hawks at the site would further the association with Hathor who was the mother of Horus, the hawk, the pharaoh, and the sun. Her hunting nature led to the Greeks, who later occupied Egypt for three hundred years, identifying Pakhet with Artemis. Consequently, this temple became known to them as Speos Artemidos, the Cave of Artemis. The Greeks attempted to align the Egyptian deities with their own, later, Egypt was conquered by the Romans, just after 30 AD, and they retained many of the Greek place names. Christians and other religious sects occupied some parts of the site during the Roman period, arabic place names were established after the 7th century. Hatshepsut and her daughter Neferure have been identified as the builders of a temple dedicated to Pakhet nearby

48.
Ptah
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Phosphotungstic acid haematoxylin is a mix of haematoxylin with phosphotungstic acid, used in histology for staining. It stains some tissue in contrasting colors in a way similar to haematoxylin and eosin stain and it is used to show gliosis in the central nervous system, tumours of skeletal muscles, and fibrin deposits in lesions. PTAH is ideal for demonstrating striated muscle fibers and mitochondria, often without a counterstain, as such, it is used to identify contraction bands, as seen in contraction band necrosis. PTAH stains ependymomas while it does not stain choroid plexus papillomas and this technique has been largely replaced by immunohistochemistry techniques. There is much more phosphotungstic acid in the solution than hematein, the phosphotungstic acid binds all of the available hematein to form a blue lake pigment. This lake stains the muscle cross striations, fibrin, nuclei, the rest of the phosphotungstic acid stains the red-brown components, such as collagen. Zenker fixative is preferred, although formalin fixed tissue can be used, PTAH solution, Gram Iodine, 5% sodium thiosulfate,0. 25% Potassium Permanganate, and 5% Oxalic Acid solution are needed. After staining, slides should be dehydrated quickly because the red-brown components lose their color when exposed to water or alcohol

49.
Qetesh
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Qetesh is a goddess adopted into the ancient Egyptian religion from the religion of Canaan, popular during the New Kingdom. She was a fertility goddess of sacred ecstasy and sexual pleasure, the name was probably vocalized by Egyptians as *Qātiša from the Semitic root Q-D-Š meaning holy. Her city of worship was Qadesh, in the Qetesh stele, Qetesh is represented as a frontal nude standing on a lion between Min of Egypt and the Canaanite warrior god Resheph. She is holding snakes in one hand and a flower in the other as symbols of creation. Qetesh is associated with Anat, Astarte, and Asherah and she also has elements associated with the goddesses of Mycenae, the Minoans of Crete, and certain Kassite goddesses of the metals trade in tin, copper and bronze between Lothal and Dilmun. Qudshu-Astarte-Anat is a representation of a goddess who is a combination of three goddesses, Qetesh, Astarte, and Anat. It was a practice for Canaanites and Egyptians to merge different deities through a process of syncretism. She is called Mistress of All the Gods, Lady of the Stars of Heaven, Beloved of Ptah, Great of magic, mistress of the stars, qadshu is also used as an epithet of Athirat, the Great Mother Goddess of the Canaanites. Battle of Kadesh Cybele Johanna Stuckey, The Holy One, MatriFocus,2007

50.
Renenutet
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Renenūtet was a goddess of nourishment and the harvest in ancient Egyptian religion. The importance of the harvest caused people to many offerings to Renenutet during harvest time. Initially, her cult was centered in Terenuthis, Renenutet was envisioned, particularly in art, as a cobra, or as a woman with the head of a cobra. Sometimes, as the goddess of nourishment, Renenutet was seen as having a husband and he was represented as the Nile River, the annual flooding of which deposited the fertile silt that enabled abundant harvests. More usually, Renenutet was seen as the mother of Nehebkau, when considered the mother of Nehebkau, Renenutet was seen as having a husband, Geb, who represented the Earth. Later, as a snake-goddess worshiped over the whole of Lower Egypt, Renenutet was increasingly associated with Wadjet, Lower Egypts powerful protector, eventually Renenutet was identified as an alternate form of Wadjet, whose gaze was said to slaughter enemies. Wadjet was the cobra shown on the crown of the pharaohs, the Hymn of Renenutet says, I will make the Nile swell for you, without there being a year of lack and exhaustion in the whole land, so the plants will flourish, bending under their fruit. The land of Egypt is beginning to stir again, the shores are shining wonderfully, and wealth and well-being dwell with them, as it had been before

51.
Resheph
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Resheph was a deity associated with plague in ancient Canaanite religion. The originally Eblaite and Canaanite deity was adopted into ancient Egyptian religion in the late Bronze Age during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt as a god of horses, in Biblical Hebrew, רֶשֶׁף‎ resheph is a noun interpreted as flame, lightning but also burning fever, plague, pestilence. The name is found in the third millennium tablets from Ebla, as Rašap, listed as divinity of the cities of Atanni, Gunu, Tunip, and Shechem. Rasap was also one of the gods of the city of Ebla having one of the four city gates named in his honor. References to ršp gn have been found at Ebla and Ugarit and these have been variously interpreted as associating Resheph with the shield and protection, or the city Gunu, or gardens, or the cemetery. Ršp was an important Ugaritic deity and he had the byname of tġr špš door-warden of the Sun. Sacrifices to Ršp were performed in gardens, Ugaritic Ršp was equated with Mesopotamian Nergal. Fauth argued that ršp in the later Canaanite period no longer referred to a god and could be used as a byname. Teixidor based on an epithet ḥṣ in Kition identifies Ršp as a god who strikes his victims with arrows as Homeric Apollo. Resheph is mentioned in Ugaritic mythological texts such as the epic of Kirta and The Mare, although the iconography of Resheph shares the gazelle with that of the Egyptian-Canaanite Shed, Cornelius writes that the rest of the attributes are totally different. Resheph was adopted as a deity in Egypt under Amenhotep II during the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt as god of horses. Originally adopted into the cult, Resheph became a popular deity in the Twentieth Dynasty while disappearing from royal inscriptions. In this later period, Resheph often appears with Qetesh and Min, in this time, however, most his stelae are found in Deir el-Medina, a settlement of Syrian craftsmen. The theonym is usually written as hieroglyphic ršpw, where the final -w is added in analogy to other Egyptian divine names, in Biblical Hebrew, resheph רֶשֶׁף‎ means flame, firebolt, derived from שָׂרַף‎ to burn. Resheph as a name, a grandson of Ephraim, occurs in 1 Chronicles 7,25. In Habakkuk 3,5, describing the procession of Eloah from Teman and Mount Paran, mention deber and resheph as going before him, in the King James Version translated as pestilence and burning coals. Due to the discovery of both deber and resheph as theonyms in Ebla, this passage has been reinterpreted as describing a procession of the retinue of El going to war with Yam. In Job 5,7, there is mention of the sons of resheph, translated in the Septuagint as νεοσσοὶ δὲ γυπὸς the young of the vulture, Ancient Canaanite religion Religions of the ancient Near East Shed Wolfgang Helck, Die Beziehungen Ägyptens zu Vorderasien im 3

Resheph
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Resheph with long hair
Resheph
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Resheph with Qetesh and Min.

52.
Sekhmet
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In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet (/ˈsɛkˌmɛt/ or Sachmis is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians and it was said that her breath formed the desert. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy. Religion, the lineage, and the authority to govern were intrinsically interwoven in ancient Egypt during its approximately three millennia of existence. Sekhmet also is a Solar deity, sometimes called the daughter of the sun god Ra and often associated with the goddesses Hathor and she bears the Solar disk and the uraeus which associates her with Wadjet and royalty. With these associations she can be construed as being an arbiter of the goddess Maat in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, associating her with the Wadjet. Sekhmets name comes from the Ancient Egyptian word sekhem which means power or might, Sekhmets name suits her function and means the powerful. She also was given such as the Before Whom Evil Trembles, Mistress of Dread, Lady of Slaughter. In order to placate Sekhmets wrath, her priestesses performed a ritual before a different statue of the goddess on each day of the year and this practice resulted in many images of the goddess being preserved. It is estimated more than seven hundred statues of Sekhmet once stood in one funerary temple alone. She was envisioned as a lioness, and in art, was depicted as such, or as a woman with the head of a lioness, who was dressed in red. Sometimes the dress she wears exhibits a pattern over each breast, an ancient leonine motif. Occasionally, Sekhmet was also portrayed in her statuettes and engravings with minimal clothing or naked, tame lions were kept in temples dedicated to Sekhmet at Leontopolis. To pacify Sekhmet, festivals were celebrated at the end of battle, participation in the festival was great, including the priestesses and the population. Historical records of tens of thousands attending the festival exist and these findings were made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed some characteristics of Sekhmet. These temple excavations at Luxor discovered a porch of drunkenness built onto the temple by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, in a myth about the end of Ras rule on the earth, Ra sends Hathor or Sekhmet to destroy mortals who conspired against him. Mistaking the beer for blood, she became so drunk that she gave up the slaughter, Sekhmet later was considered to be the mother of Maahes, a deity who appeared during the New Kingdom period

53.
Serket
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Serqet /ˈsɜːrˌkɛt/ is the goddess of fertility, nature, animals, medicine, magic, and healing venomous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion. In the art of ancient Egypt, Serqet was shown as a scorpion or as a woman with a scorpion on her head, although Serqet does not appear to have had any temples, she had a sizable number of priests in many communities. Her close association with the early rulers implies that she was their protector, notably Scorpion I and Scorpion II. As the protector against venom and snakebite, Serqet often was said to protect the deities from Apep, as many of the venomous creatures of Egypt could prove fatal, Serqet also was considered a protector of the dead, particularly being associated with venoms and fluids causing stiffening. As the guard of one of the jars and a protector, Serqet gained a strong association with Isis, Nephthys, and Neith. According to this hypothesis, Serket is referred to as She who gives breath because of the way waterscorpions seem to breath underwater, les prêtres-ouâb de Sekhmet et les conjurateurs de Serket

Serket
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the Egyptian goddess Serket. She is often depicted as a woman with a scorpion gracing her crown. She holds the ankh, the symbol of life, in one hand and a staff, representing power, in the other.

54.
Sopdet
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Sopdet is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius and its personification as an Egyptian goddess. Known to the Greeks as Sothis, she was conflated with Isis as a goddess, the exact pronunciation of ancient Egyptian is uncertain, as vowels were not recorded until a very late period. In modern transcription, her name appears as Sopdet after the known Greek. During the early period of Egyptian civilization, the rising of the bright star preceded the usual annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore used for the solar civil calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC. She was also venerated as a goddess of the fertility brought to the soil by the flooding and she was long thought to be represented by the cow on an ivory tablet from the reign of Djer, but this is no longer supported by most Egyptologists. During the Old Kingdom, she was an important goddess of the annual flood, during the Middle Kingdom, she was primarily a mother and nurse and, by the Ptolemaic period, she was almost entirely subsumed into Isis. Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, Lord of the East and she was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head, usually with a horned hedjet similar to Satis. In the Ptolemaic and Roman period, the European notion of the Dog Star caused her to sometimes be represented as a dog or as a woman riding one sidesaddle. From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut with Hathor, in Greco-Roman Egypt, the male Sopdet was conflated with the dog-headed Anubis. Egyptian pantheon Isis & Satet Anubis Sirius & Sothic cycle Wilkinson, Richard H. Sothis, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, London, Thames & Hudson, pp. 167–168, ISBN 0-500-05120-8

Sopdet
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Sopdet in red dress, with star on the head

55.
Sopdu
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Sopdu was a god of the sky and of eastern border regions in ancient Egyptian religion. As a sky god, Sopdu was connected with the god Sah, the personification of the constellation Orion, according to the Pyramid Texts, Horus-Sopdu, a combination of Sopdu and the greater sky god Horus, is the offspring of Osiris-Sah and Isis-Sopdet. As a god of the east, Sopdu was said to protect Egyptian outposts along the frontiers and he was referred to as Lord of the East, and had his greatest cult centre at the easternmost nome of Lower Egypt, which was named Per-Sopdu, meaning place of Sopdu. He also had shrines at Egyptian settlements in the Sinai Peninsula, sopdus name is composed of the hieroglyph for sharp, a pointed triangle, and the 3rd person plural suffix, thus a literal translation of his name is sharp ones. He was said, in the Pyramid Texts, to protect the teeth of the deceased pharaoh, Sopdu was depicted as a falcon sitting on a religious standard, often with a two-feathered crown on his head and a flail over his shoulder. In his border-guarding role he was shown as a Near Eastern warrior, with a shemset girdle and an axe or spear

Sopdu
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Sopdu

56.
Tefnut
–
Tefnut is a goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu, like most Egyptian deities, including her brother, Tefnut has no single ideograph or symbol. Her name in hieroglyphics consists of four single phonogram symbols t-f-n-t, although the n phonogram is a representation of waves on the surface of water, it was never used as an ideogram or determinative for the word water, or for anything associated with water. Tefnut is a daughter of the solar god Ra-Atum, married to her brother, Shu, she is mother of Nut, the sky and Geb, the earth. Tefnuts grandchildren were Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and in some versions and she was also a great grandmother of Horus the Younger. Alongside her father, brother, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild, there are a number of variants to the myth of the creation of Tefnut and her twin brother Shu. In all versions, Tefnut is the product of parthenogenesis, in the Heliopolitan creation myth, the solar god Atum masturbates to produce Tefnut and Shu. Atum was creative in that he proceeded to himself in Heliopolis. He took his penis in his hand so that he obtain the pleasure of orgasm thereby. And brother and sister were born - that is Shu and Tefnut, Pyramid Text 527 In some versions of this myth, Atum also swallows his semen, and spits it out to form the twins, or else the spitting of his saliva forms the act of procreation. Both of these contain a play on words, the tef sound which forms the first syllable of the name Tefnut also constitutes a word meaning to spit or to expectorate. The Coffin Texts contain references to Shu being sneezed out by Atum from his nose, the Bremner-Rind Papyrus and the Memphite Theology describe Atum masturbating into his mouth, before spitting out his semen to form the twins. Tefnut is a deity, and appears as human with a lioness head when depicted as part of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. The other frequent depiction is as a lioness, but Tefnut can also be depicted as fully human. In her fully or semi anthropomorphic form, she is depicted wearing a wig, topped either with a serpent, or a uraeus and solar disk. Her face is used in a double headed form with that of her brother Shu on collar counterpoises. During the 18th and 19th Dynasties, particularly during the Amarna period, Tefnut was depicted in human form wearing a low flat headdress, akhenatens mother, Tiye was depicted wearing a similar headdress, and identifying with Hathor-Tefnut. The iconic blue crown of Nefertiti is thought by archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley to be derived from Tiyes headdress, Heliopolis and Leontopolis were the primary cult centres

57.
Thoth
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Thoth or Djehuti was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Maat, Thoths chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities and he also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, the final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoths Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, the addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means He who is like the ibis, Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Greek versions Thot, Thout and Thoth are derived from the letters ḏḥwty, not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, in addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes, One of Thoths titles, Thrice great was translated to the Greek τρισμέγιστος, making Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era, usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times, when depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective gods headdress. Sometimes he was seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is Aan. In the form of Aah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form and these forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoths attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads, for example, Maat is often depicted with an ostrich feather, the feather of truth, on her head, or with a feather for a head. Thoths roles in Egyptian mythology were many and he served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other

58.
Hermes Trismegistus
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Hermes Trismegistus is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism. Hermes Trismegistus may be a representation of the combination of the Greek god Hermes. Greeks in Hellenistic Egypt recognized the equivalence of Hermes and Thoth, consequently, the two gods were worshiped as one, in what had been the Temple of Thoth in Khemnu, which the Greeks called Hermopolis. Both Hermes and Thoth were gods of writing and of magic in their respective cultures, Hermes, the Greek god of interpretive communication, was combined with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom, to become the patron of astrology and alchemy. In addition, both gods were psychopomps, guiding souls to the afterlife, the Egyptian priest and polymath Imhotep had been deified long after his death and therefore assimilated to Thoth in the classical and Hellenistic period. This interpretation of poorly-understood Mycenaean material is disputed, since Hermes Trismegistus is not referenced in any of the sources before he emerges in Hellenistic Egypt. The majority of Greeks, and later Romans, did not accept Hermes Trismegistus in the place of Hermes, the two gods were regarded as distinct. Both of these early references in Cicero corroborate the view that Thrice-Great Hermes originated in Hellenistic Egypt through syncretism between Greek and Egyptian gods. In a parallel tradition, Hermetic philosophy rationalized and systematized religious cult practices and this latter tradition has led to the confusion of Hermeticism with Gnosticism, which was developing contemporaneously. As a divine source of wisdom, Hermes Trismegistus was credited with tens of thousands of highly esteemed writings, platos Timaeus and Critias state that in the temple of Neith at Sais there were secret halls containing historical records which had been kept for 9,000 years. Clement of Alexandria was under the impression that the Egyptians had forty-two sacred writings by Hermes, the Neo-Platonic writers took up Clements forty-two essential texts. The Hermetica is a category of papyri containing spells and initiatory induction procedures, in other papyri, there are recipes for constructing such images and animating them, such as when images are to be fashioned hollow so as to enclose a magic name inscribed on gold leaf. Fowden asserts that the first datable occurrences of the epithet thrice great are in the Legatio of Athenagoras of Athens and in a fragment from Philo of Byblos, circa AD 64–141. However, in a work, Copenhaver reports that this epithet is first found in the minutes of a meeting of the council of the Ibis cult. Hart explains that the epithet is derived from an epithet of Thoth found at the Temple of Esna, Thoth the great, the great, the great. Some authorities regard him as a contemporary of Abraham, and some Jewish traditions claim that Abraham acquired a portion of his knowledge from Hermes himself. They believed in a prisca theologia, the doctrine that a single, true theology exists and it was given by God to man in antiquity and passed through a series of prophets, which included Zoroaster and Plato. In order to demonstrate the verity of the prisca theologia, Christians appropriated the Hermetic teachings for their own purposes and it was Marsilio Ficino who stated that they called him Trismegistus because he was the greatest philosopher and the greatest priest and the greatest king

Hermes Trismegistus
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Hermes Trismegistus, floor mosaic in the Cathedral of Siena
Hermes Trismegistus
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Pages from a 14th-century Arabic manuscript of the Cyranides, a text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus

59.
Tutu (Egyptian god)
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Tutu was an Egyptian god worshipped by ordinary people all over Egypt during the late period. The only known temple dedicated to Tutu is located in ancient Kellis, tutus title at the Shenhur temple was Who comes to the one calling him. Other titles of Tutu are Son of Neith, the Lion, Great of Strength, and Master of the demons of Sekhmet and the wandering demons of Bastet. His iconography is hybrid consisting of the body of a striding, winged lion, the head of a human, other heads of hawks and crocodiles projecting from the body, Tutu was son of Neith, who was considered as a dangerous goddess. Other goddesses in the same aspect were named as Mut, Sekhmet, Nekhbet and Bastet and this meant that Tutu is placed in a position of power over demons. It was his role to slay demons sent out by dangerous goddesses and these were Mahes, Khonsu and Nefertem. Originally the protector of tombs, Tutu later guarded the sleeping from danger or bad dreams, Tutu was also regarded for ordinary people to worship, offering and rituals were made on portable altars. Offerings included goose, and bread, and rituals were for protection from demons, Tutu was stated to have given protection from demons, giving longer life and protecting people from the Netherworld. The Egyptian god Tutu, a study of the sphinx-god and master of demons with a corpus of monuments, peeters Publishers Sauneron, JNES19 p 285 Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Second Edition

Tutu (Egyptian god)
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Tutu (Egyptian god)
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A relief depicting Tutu. He wears the headdress of a king, has a human face, the body of a lion, the wings of a bird, the tail of a cobra and he stomps on Sekhmet's arrows.

60.
Werethekau
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Werethekau was an Ancient Egyptian deity. She served as the personification of supernatural powers, weret hekau meaning great of magic or great enchantress, as a deity dedicated to protection, she often appeared on funerary objects, particularly weapons, to allow the deceased to protect him or herself against the dangers of the underworld. She also was placed on ivory knives as a charm to protect pregnant and her power was one of the inherent qualities of the Crowns of Egypt. As goddess of the crowns she was a snake or a lion-headed woman, as the wife of Ra-Horakhty she is depicted with his solar disk on her head. Werethekau was an epithet frequently conferred on Isis, Sekhmet, Mut, and others

Werethekau
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A relief representing Weret-hekau. From the reign of Ramesses II

61.
Wosret
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Wosret, Wasret, or Wosyet meaning the powerful was an Egyptian goddess with a cult centre at Thebes in Upper Egypt. She was rarely depicted, and no temples to her have been identified, one example of a depiction of Wosret is on the stela shown to the right where she is the figure farthest to the right. When she was depicted, it was wearing a crown with the Was sceptre. Wosret was later superseded by Mut and became an aspect of Hathor and she was also identified with the protection of the deity Horus, Isis son, when he was young. She was Amuns first wife, and was replaced by Mut, on the stela above Amun is depicted to the left

62.
Hieracosphinx
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The hieracosphinx is a mythical beast found in Egyptian sculpture and European heraldry. The god Heru Wer was usually depicted as one, the Hieracosphinx has the head of a hawk and the body of a lion. The name was coined by Herodotus to the hawk-headed sphinxes that he saw in Egypt, comparison of the hieracosphinx with other sphinx types

Hieracosphinx
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Description [edit]

63.
Medjed (fish)
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Medjed was a species of elephantfish worshipped at Oxyrhynchus in ancient Egyptian religion. These fish were believed to have eaten the penis of Osiris after his brother Set had dismembered and scattered the gods body, a settlement in Upper Egypt, Per-Medjed, was named after the fish and is now better known under its Greek name Oxyrhynchus. The elephantfish are medium-sized freshwater fish abundant in the Nile and they figure in various Egyptian and other artworks. Some species of mormyrid have distinctive downturned snouts, lending them the name of elephantnoses among aquarists and ichthyologists

64.
Sphinx
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A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion. In Greek tradition, it has the head of a human, the haunches of a lion and it is mythicised as treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer its riddle suffer a fate typical in such stories, as they are killed. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus, unlike the Greek sphinx, which was a woman, the Egyptian sphinx is typically shown as a man. In European decorative art, the sphinx enjoyed a revival during the Renaissance. Sphinxes are generally associated with structures such as royal tombs or religious temples. The oldest known sphinx was found near Gobekli Tepe at another site, Nevali Çori, or possibly 120 miles to the east at Kortik Tepe, Turkey, and was dated to 9,500 BCE. The largest and most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza, situated on the Giza Plateau adjacent to the Great Pyramids of Giza on the west bank of the Nile River, the sphinx is located southeast of the pyramids. Although the date of its construction is uncertain, the head of the Great Sphinx now is believed to be that of the pharaoh Khafra, what names their builders gave to these statues is not known. At the Great Sphinx site, a 1400 BCE inscription on a stele belonging to the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose IV lists the names of three aspects of the sun deity of that period, Khepera–Rê–Atum. The theme was expanded to form great avenues of guardian sphinxes lining the approaches to tombs, nine hundred with ram heads, representing Amon, were built in Thebes, where his cult was strongest. Perhaps the first sphinx in Egypt was one depicting Queen Hetepheres II and she was one of the longest-lived members of the royal family of that dynasty. The Great Sphinx has become an emblem of Egypt, frequently appearing on its stamps, coins, from the Bronze Age, the Hellenes had trade and cultural contacts with Egypt. Before the time that Alexander the Great occupied Egypt, the Greek name, the historians and geographers of Greece wrote extensively about Egyptian culture. Herodotus called the ram-headed sphinxes Criosphinxes and called the hawk-headed ones Hieracosphinxes, the word sphinx comes from the Greek Σφίγξ, apparently from the verb σφίγγω, meaning to squeeze, to tighten up. This name may be derived from the fact that the hunters for a pride of lions are the lionesses, There was a single sphinx in Greek mythology, a unique demon of destruction and bad luck. According to Hesiod, she was a daughter of Orthrus and either Echidna or the Chimera, or perhaps even Ceto, according to others, she was a daughter of Echidna and Typhon. All of these are figures from the earliest of Greek myths

65.
Uraeus
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The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet and she was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and who often was depicted as a cobra. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks and she became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt. In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the head, it was, in effect. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler, there is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE. Several goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet are depicted wearing the Uraeus also, the importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as The Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt. Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, in some mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. As the Uraeus was seen as a symbol, the deities Horus. In early ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus would have been the given to any king as part of the many titles taken. According to the mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to have been created by the goddess Isis, who formed it from the dust of the earth. In this version of the mythology, the Uraeus was the instrument with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris, Isis is associated with and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet. In 1919, after only a half-hour of excavation, the Qufti worker Hosni Ibrahim held in his hands the solid-gold Golden Uraeus of Senusret II and it had been decided to make a complete clearance of the El-Lahun Pyramids rooms at Saqqara. The start in the offering chamber, leading from the tomb, on the south, immediately revealed in the turnover of the six inches of debris. Prior to the 1922 find of Tutankhamuns tomb, this Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known to be worn by an entombed pharaoh, and it was thought that it was passed to the next pharaoh. The Golden Uraeus is of gold,6.7 cm, black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays. For mounting on the crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points. Besides the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an adornment on the pharaoh, it also was used for jewellery, however, another important use is as the hieroglyph

66.
Ankh
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The ankh, also known as crux ansata is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic ideograph with the meaning life. The Egyptian gods are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, the ankh appears in hand or in proximity of almost every deity in the Egyptian pantheon. The ankh symbol was so prevalent that it has found in digs as far as Mesopotamia and Persia. The symbol became popular in New Age mysticism in the 1960s, unicode has two characters encoding the symbol, U+2625 ☥ in the Miscellaneous Symbols block and U+132F9

67.
Atef
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Atef is the specific feathered white crown of the Egyptian deity Osiris. It combines the Hedjet, the crown of Upper Egypt, with curly red ostrich feathers on side of the crown for the Osiris cult. The feathers are identified as ostrich from their curl or curve at the upper ends and they are the same feather as worn by Maat. The crown is worn by Sobek. They may be compared with the tail feathers in two-feather crowns, such as those of Amun which are more narrow. The Atef crown identifies Osiris in ancient Egyptian painting, Osiris wears the Atef crown as a symbol of the ruler of the underworld. The tall bulbous white piece in the center of the crown is between two ostrich feathers, the feathers represent truth, justice, morality, and balance. The Atef crown is similar, save for the feathers, to the white crown used in the Predynastic Period. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, E. A. Wallace Budge, c 1978, Dover edition,1978

68.
Crook and flail
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The crook and flail are symbols used in Ancient Egyptian society. They were originally the attributes of the deity Osiris that became insignia of pharaonic authority, the shepherds crook stood for kingship and the flail for the fertility of the land. The earliest known example of a crook is from the Gerzeh culture. By late Predynastic times, the crook was already an established symbol of rule. The flail initially remained separate, being depicted alone on some earliest representations of royal ceremonial, approximately by the time of the Second Dynasty the crook and flail became paired. The only extant pharaonic examples of both the crook and flail come from the tomb of Tutankhamun and their staffs are made of heavy bronze covered with alternating stripes of blue glass, obsidian, and gold, while the flails beads are made of gilded wood. Traditionally crossed over the chest when held, they represented the ruler as a shepherd whose beneficence is formidably tempered with might. Still another interpretation, by E. A. Wallis Budge, is that the flail is what was used to thresh grain, sekhem scepter Was scepter Pharaoh-seated, with flail & red crown

Crook and flail
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The crook and flail on the coffinette of Tutankhamun

69.
Deshret
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Deshret, from ancient Egyptian, was the formal name for the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of Kemet, the fertile Nile river basin. When combined with the Hedjet of Upper Egypt, it forms the Pschent, the Red Crown in Egyptian language hieroglyphs eventually was used as the vertical letter n. The original n hieroglyph from the Predynastic Period, and the Old Kingdom was the sign depicting ripples of water, in mythology, the earth deity Geb, original ruler of Egypt, invested Horus with the rule over Lower Egypt. The Egyptian pharaohs, who saw themselves as successors of Horus, other deities wore the deshret too, or were identified with it, such as the protective serpent goddess Wadjet and the creator-goddess of Sais, Neith, who often is shown wearing the Red Crown. The Red Crown would later be combined with the White Crown of Upper Egypt to form the Double Crown, symbolizing the rule over the whole country, as concerns deshret, the Red Land which comprised the deserts and foreign lands surrounding Egypt, Seth was its lord. It was considered a region of chaos, without law and full of dangers, none of the red crowns have survived, and it is unknown how it was constructed and what materials were used. Copper, reeds, cloth, and leather have been suggested, the Red Crown frequently is mentioned in texts and depicted in reliefs and statues. An early example is the depiction of the victorious pharaoh wearing the deshret on the Narmer Palette, a label from the reign of Djer records a royal visit to the shrine of the Deshret which may have been located at Buto in the Nile delta. The ancient Egyptian Red Crown, the Deshret crown, is one of the oldest Egyptian hieroglyphs, as an iconographic element, it is used on the famous Narmer Palette of Pharaoh Narmer as the Red Crown of the Delta, the Delta being Lower Egypt. The first usage of the Red Crown was in iconography as the symbol for Lower Egypt with the Nile Delta, later it came to be used in the Egyptian language – as an alphabetic uniliteral, vertical form for letter n as a phoneme or preposition. It became functional in running hieroglyphic texts, where either the horizontal or vertical form preposition satisfied space requirements, the Red Crown is also used as a determinative, most notably in the word for deshret. It is also used in words or names of gods. One older use of the red crown hieroglyph is to make the word, Egyptian in is used at the beginning of a text and translates as, Behold. or Lo. and is an emphatic. In the 198 BC Rosetta Stone, the Red Crown as hieroglyph has the usage mostly of the form of the preposition n. Visually it is also a hieroglyph that takes up more space-, so it may have a purpose of a less compact text. The Red Crown hieroglyph is used 35 times in the Rosetta Stone and it averages once per line usage in the 36 line Decree of Memphis -. Deshret, the Red Crown of the Pharaoh Gardiners Sign List#S. Crowns, Dress, Staves, Gardiners Sign List Deshret in hieroglyphic writing Budge. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, E. A. Wallace Budge, c 1978, the Rosetta Stone, E. A. Wallace Budge, c 1929, Dover edition,1989

70.
Egyptian pool
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The pool symbol in Egyptian mythology represents water. It is a rectangle, longer horizontally than vertically, with seven equally spaced vertical lines within it. It can also represent the waters that the Egyptians believed was the source of all things. Occasionally, the sun god is depicted as a sun arising from the pool symbol, Egyptian pharaohs had decreed that objects in paintings and the like should be instantly recognizable to the viewer. Hence, reflecting pools were shown from a view, even if the rest of the image was shown from the side

71.
Ennead
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The Great Ennead was only one of several such groupings of nine deities in ancient Egypt and its claims to preëminence by its Heliopolitan priests were not respected throughout Egypt. As close as Memphis, the priests of Ptah celebrated him as superior to the Nine, Ennead is borrowing via Latin of the Greek name Enneás, meaning the Nine. The term was a calque of the Egyptian name, written Psḏt and its original pronunciation is uncertain, since hieroglyphs do not record vowels, but Egyptologists conventionally transcribe it as Pesedjet. The ancient Egyptians created several enneads as their unification under Dynasty I brought numerous local cults into contact with one another, the Pyramid Texts of Dynasties V and VI mention the Great Ennead, the Lesser Ennead, the Dual Ennead, and the Seven Enneads. Some pharaohs established enneads that incorporated themselves as gods, the most notable case is Seti I of Dynasty XIX, whose temple at Redesiyah celebrated an ennead of six major gods and three deified forms of himself. In the Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days, the ennead mentioned may reference the Pleiades, the most important was the Great or Heliopolitan Ennead of Awanu, known under the Greeks and Romans as Heliopolis. It celebrated the family of the sun god Atum and thrived from the Old Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period and its development remains uncertain, although it appears to have first appeared when Ras cult—supreme under Dynasty V—declined in importance under Dynasty VI. The most prominent of such deities was Osiris, god of vegetation and the afterlife, however, in the 20th century, some Egyptologists question the whole scenario. After the Great Ennead was well established, the cult of Ra—identified with Atum—recovered much of its importance until superseded by the cult of Horus, the two were then combined as Ra–Horus of the Horizons. According to the story of the Heliopolitan priests, the world originally consisted of the primeval waters personified as Nun. From it arose a mound, separately identified by the Memphite priests as Ptah, upon the mound sat the self-begotten god Atum, who was equated with the sun god Ra. Bored and alone, Atum either spat or masturbated, producing air personified as Shu, the siblings Shu and Tefnut mated to produce the earth personified as Geb and the nighttime sky personified as Nut. These siblings engaged in continuous copulation until separated by their father Shu, Geb and Nut were the parents of Osiris and Isis and of Set and Nephthys, who became respective couples in turn. Shifting Milestones of Natural Sciences, The Ancient Egyptian Discovery of Algols Period Confirmed, PLOS One, Vol.10, No

72.
Eye of Horus
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The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye is personified in the goddess Wadjet, the Eye of Horus is similar to the Eye of Ra, which belongs to a different god, Ra, but represents many of the same concepts. Wadjet was one of the earliest of Egyptian deities who later associated with other goddesses such as Bast, Sekhmet, Mut. She was the deity of Lower Egypt and the major Delta shrine the per-nu was under her protection. Hathor is also depicted with this eye, funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wadjet or Eye of Horus is the element of seven gold, faience, carnelian. The Wedjat was intended to protect the pharaoh in the afterlife, Ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel. Horus was the ancient Egyptian sky god who was depicted as a falcon. His right eye was associated with the sun god, Ra, the eye symbol represents the marking around the eye of the falcon, including the teardrop marking sometimes found below the eye. The mirror image, or left eye, sometimes represented the moon, in one myth, when Set and Horus were fighting for the throne after Osiriss death, Set gouged out Horuss left eye. The majority of the eye was restored by either Hathor or Thoth, when Horuss eye was recovered, he offered it to his father, Osiris, in hopes of restoring his life. Hence, the eye of Horus was often used to sacrifice, healing, restoration. There are seven different hieroglyphs used to represent the eye, most commonly ir. t in Egyptian, in Egyptian myth the eye was not the passive organ of sight but more an agent of action, protection or wrath. The Eye of Horus was represented as a hieroglyph, designated D10 in Gardiners sign list and it is represented in the Unicode character block for Egyptian hieroglyphs as U+13080. In Ancient Egyptian most fractions were written as the sum of two or more unit fractions, with scribes possessing tables of answers, thus instead of 3⁄4, one would write 1⁄2 + 1⁄4. Studies from the 1970s to this day in Egyptian mathematics have clearly shown this theory was fallacious, the evolution of the symbols used in mathematics, although similar to the different parts of the Eye of Horus, is now known to be distinct. Wadjet eye tatoos associated with Hathor depicted on 3, 000-year-old mummy

Eye of Horus
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An Eye of Horus or Wedjat pendant
Eye of Horus
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The Wedjat, later called The Eye of Horus
Eye of Horus
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The crown of a Nubian king
Eye of Horus
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Wooden case decorated with bronze, silver, ivory and gold

73.
Eye of Ra
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The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re is a being in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as a feminine counterpart to the sun god Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. The Eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and she is his partner in the creative cycle in which he begets the renewed form of himself that is born at dawn. The Eyes violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule and this dangerous aspect of the Eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The Eye of Ra is similar to the Eye of Horus, which belongs to a different god, Horus, but represents many of the same concepts. The disastrous effects when the Eye goddess rampages out of control, the Eye of Ra was involved in many areas of ancient Egyptian religion, including in the cults of the many goddesses who are equated with it. Its life-giving power was celebrated in temple rituals, and its dangerous aspect was invoked in the protection of the pharaoh, of sacred places, the Egyptians often referred to the sun and the moon as the eyes of particular gods. The right eye of the god Horus, for instance, was equated with the sun, however, in Egyptian belief, many terms and concepts are fluid, so the sun could also be called the Eye of Horus. The yellow or red disk-like sun emblem in Egyptian art represents the Eye of Ra, because of the great importance of the sun in Egyptian religion, this emblem is among the most common religious symbols in all of Egyptian art. Although Egyptologists usually call this emblem the sun disk, its shape in Egyptian relief sculpture suggests that the Egyptians may have envisioned it as a sphere. The emblem often appears atop the heads of solar-associated deities, including Ra himself, the disk could even be regarded as Ras physical form. At other times, the sun god, in forms, is depicted inside the disk shape as if enclosed within it. The disk is often called Ras daughter in Egyptian texts, as the sun, the Eye of Ra is a source of heat and light, and it is associated with fire and flames. It is also equated with the red light that appears before sunrise, the presence of the feminine suffix -t in jrt may explain why these independent eyes were thought of as female. The Eye of Ra, in particular, is involved in the sun gods creative actions. In Egyptian mythology, the emergence from the horizon each morning is likened to Ras birth, an event that revitalizes him. Ra emerges from the body of a goddess who represents the sky—usually Nut, depictions of the rising sun often show Ra as a child contained within the solar disk. In this context, the Egyptologist Lana Troy suggests, the disk may represent the womb from which he is born or the placenta that emerges with him. The Eye of Ra can also take the form of a goddess, Ra was sometimes said to enter the body of the sky goddess at sunset, impregnating her and setting the stage for his rebirth at sunrise

Eye of Ra
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The Eye of Ra can be equated with the disk of the sun, with the cobras coiled around the disk, and with the white and red crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.
Eye of Ra
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The uraeus on the royal headdress of Amenemope
Eye of Ra
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Sekhmet as a woman with the head of a lioness, wearing the sun disk and uraeus
Eye of Ra
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Frieze of uraei bearing sun disks at the top of a wall in the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

74.
Flooding of the Nile
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The flooding of the Nile has been an important natural cycle in Egypt since ancient times. It is celebrated by Egyptians as a holiday for two weeks starting August 15, known as Wafaa El-Nil. It is also celebrated in the Coptic Church by ceremonially throwing a martyrs relic into the river, hence the name, ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile flooded every year because of Isiss tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. The flooding of the Nile is the result of the monsoon between May and August causing enormous precipitations on the Ethiopian Highlands whose summits reach heights of up to 4550 m. Most of this rainwater is taken by the Blue Nile and by the Atbara into the Nile, an important amount is flowing through the Sobat. During this short period, those rivers contribute up to ninety percent of the water of the Nile and most of the sedimentation carried by it and these facts were unknown to the ancient Egyptians who could only observe the rise and fall of the Nile waters. Which was not foreseeable, of course, was the size of flooding, the Egyptian year was divided into the three seasons of Akhet, Peret, and Shemu. Akhet covered the Egyptian flood cycle and this cycle was so consistent that the Egyptians timed its onset using the heliacal rising of Sirius, the key event used to set their calendar. The Nile continued to rise until the beginning of September, when the level remained stationary for a period of three weeks, sometimes a little less. In October it often rose again, and reached its highest level, from this period it began to subside, and usually sank steadily until the month of June when it reached its lowest level, again. Flooding reached Aswan about an earlier than Cairo, and Luxor 5 –6 days earlier than Cairo. Typical heights of flood were 45 feet at Aswan,38 feet at Luxor and 25 feet at Cairo, if it were not for the Nile River, Egyptian civilization could not have developed, as it is the only significant source of water in this desert region. Its other importance was its function as their gateway to the unknown world, the Nile flows from south to north, to its delta on the Mediterranean Sea. The floods were seen as the coming of the god. Possibly Egyptian mythology was based on understanding, creating stories of gods or nature to give added importance to the processes and cycles that sustained Egypt. Whilst the earliest Egyptians simply laboured those areas which were inundated by the floods, some 7000 years ago, agricultural land was divided into large fields surrounded by dams and dykes and equipped with intake and exit canals. The basins were flooded and then closed for about 45 days to saturate the soil with moisture, then the water was discharged to lower fields or back into the Nile. Immediately thereafter, sowing started, and harvesting followed some three of four months later, in the dry season thereafter, farming was not possible

Flooding of the Nile
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The festival of the Nile as depicted in Norden 's Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie
Flooding of the Nile
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Sundown and the flooded valley near Cairo

75.
Hemhem crown
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Hemhem crown was an ancient Egyptian ceremonial headgear. It was basically an ornate triple atef with corkscrew sheep horns, the Egyptian word hemhem means to shout, cry out, possibly indicating that the hemhem crown represented a battle horn. An early use of the crown is shown on the golden throne of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Later the hemhem crown was shown on the images of non-Egyptian rulers, cyrus the Great is seen wearing the crown in a bas-relief found in Pasargadae. The hemhem crown is a version of the Atef crown, because of this. Heka the god of magic was illustrated wearing the hemhem crown, the crown is connected to the rising of the sun, which is interpreted as ‘rebirth’ and it is often seen in hieroglyphics with a solar child inside a lotus flower. This crown became known during the Ptolemaic period, the hemhem crown originated in the 18th dynasty, and was worn during significant ceremonies. The symbolic interpretation behind this crown was to boast the power of the Pharaoh, also, the crown was worn during warfare- this was signified by the meaning of hemhem as scream-, but it was worn during many festivals as well. It was also used in the crowning of the new king. However, the first noted appearance of the crown was during the reign of Akhenaten and then discovered in the tomb of Amarna. A young king named Tutankhamen wore the crown in a different manner and this was also discovered in his tomb. The crown is set on top of a pair of long spiral ram’s horns and it was created with reeds and ostrich feathers, along with feathers from many other animals. The hemhem was the Triple Rush Crown, and when one would wear it, it would be tilted towards that back of the contrary to how crowns are normally worn. Another type of crowns have three falcon birds in place of the three sun disks. This type of crown signifies the reign over Lower Egypt, the combination of the sun disks, the hemhem crowns occur more frequently from the time of Ptolemy VI onwards. The symbols on the crown, such as reeds and uraeuses signify a later time period, many other features of the crown such as feathers from different animals are all found in different time periods. Each feather added on the crown has significance to its time period. The form of the crown was constantly changing according to the period, different items would be added on or taken off

76.
Kneph
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Kneph is a motif in Ancient Egyptian religious art, variously a winged egg, a globe surrounded by one or more serpents, or Amun in the form of a serpent called Kematef. Some Theosophical sources tried to syncretize this motif with the deity Khnum, along with Serapis, caesar in the City of Amun, Egyptian Temple Construction and Theology in Roman Thebes

77.
Scarab (artifact)
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Scarabs were popular amulets and impression seals in Ancient Egypt. They survive in numbers and, through their inscriptions and typology, they are an important source of information for archaeologists. They also represent a significant body of ancient art, during that long period the function of scarabs repeatedly changed. Primarily amulets, they were inscribed for use as personal or administrative seals or were incorporated into jewelry. Some scarabs were apparently created for political or diplomatic purposes to commemorate or advertise royal achievements, by the early New Kingdom, heart scarabs had become part of the battery of amulets protecting mummies. From the middle Bronze Age, other ancient peoples of the Mediterranean, Scarabs were produced in vast numbers for many centuries and many thousands have survived. They were generally intended to be worn or carried by the living and they were typically carved or moulded in the form of a scarab beetle with varying degrees of naturalism but usually at least indicating the head, wing case and legs but with a flat base. The base was inscribed with designs and/or hieroglyphs to form an impression seal. Scarabs were usually drilled from end to end to them to be strung on a thread or incorporated into a swivel ring. The most common of sizes for scarabs is from 6mm to 4 cm, larger scarabs were made from time to time for particular purposes. Heart scarabs were made for a funerary purpose and should be considered separately. Scarabs were generally carved from stone or moulded from Egyptian faience. Once carved, they would typically be glazed blue or green and then fired, the most common stone used for scarabs was a form of steatite, a soft stone which becomes hard when fired. Hardstone scarabs were made and the stones most commonly used were green jasper, amethyst. In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls. Beetles of the Scarabaeidae family roll dung into a ball as food and as a chamber in which to lay eggs, this way. For these reasons the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle, the Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the world after sunset, only to renew it, again

78.
Serekh
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A serekh was a specific important type of heraldic crest used in ancient Egypt. Like the later cartouche, it contained a royal name, a serekh was an ornamental vignette combining a view of a palace facade and a plan of the royal courtyard. The word serekh derives from the Egyptian word for facade, different serekhs on different types of object display countless variations of the facade decor in its complexity and detail. It seems that no strict rules for the design of the serekh itself existed. A serekh was normally used as a royal crest, accentuating and honouring the name of the pharaoh and its use can be dated back as early as the Gerzeh culture. The hieroglyphs forming the name were placed inside a rectangular extension atop the serekh. Additionally, the falcon of the god Horus, or in a few cases the Set animal, topped the serekh, if the word serekh was written in full letters, sometimes accompanied by a miniature of the serekh, it could also be used in text. As already mentioned, the serekh first appears as an ornamental miniature during the late Gerzeh culture, from the Old Kingdom period onward, the first uses of the full written word appear in old papyri

79.
The Indestructibles
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The Indestructibles was the name given by Ancient Egyptian astronomers to two bright stars which, at that time, could always be seen circling the North Pole. The name is related to Egyptian belief in constant North as a portal to heaven for pharaohs, and the stars close association with eternity. These circumpolar stars are now known as Kochab, in the bowl of Ursa Minor or, the Little Dipper, egyptologist Toby Wilkinson explained the naming as apt metaphor in Egyptian ideology. Circumpolar stars are a good metaphor for the afterlife because when viewed, they never seem to set. They are the stars, or in Egyptian terminology, the Indestructibles. The context for this is the Egyptian belief that Ra was given birth to by Nut. Nut was pictured as a naked female spread across the sky, and identified with the Milky Way – the legs formed by the bifurcation at Deneb in Cygnus, and the head by the swelling at Gemini. About 4,500 years ago, the Egyptians believed that the area the stars encircled by 10 degrees each, was heaven in the sense that it was the place of the afterlife. The pole star at the time was Thuban, Egyptians associated those two stars with eternity and the afterlife of a king or pharaoh so that after death, a pharaoh would hope to join those stars. During the Old Kingdom it was thought only the pharaoh. As Pharaohs were buried in there were implications for their afterlife and their immortality. As the Egyptians believed that the area the stars circled was heaven. In King Khufus Pyramid, the shaft itself, built into the structure, started at the chamber of King Khufu, the shaft was built at an angle, so it could always sight The Indestructibles. The Egyptians built this vent in the pyramids in order to ensure a perfectly aligned path towards heaven, hancock and Bauval claim these inaccuracies mean that the Great Pyramid and by extension the Sphinx were built c.10,500 BC, a suggestion not widely accepted. The positioning of the pyramids is such that they do not block each others views of these stars, the entrance is in fact the exit. The North Shaft of the Kings chamber is also believed to have aligned with Beta Ursae Minoris to facilitate the Kings journey as Horus to the stars, dr. Previous Egyptian chronology for the Old Kingdom could only be considered accurate to within 100 years either way. The ka statue of Djoser in the tombs at Abydos was in a serdab in the base of his pyramid

The Indestructibles
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Djoser's ka statue in its serdab
The Indestructibles
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Original entrance

80.
Winged sun
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The winged sun is a symbol associated with divinity, royalty and power in the Ancient Near East. In Ancient Egypt, the symbol is attested from the Old Kingdom, in early Egyptian religion, the symbol Behedeti represented Horus of Edfu, later identified with Ra-Harachte. It is sometimes depicted on the neck of Apis, the bull of Ptah, as time passed all of the subordinated gods of Egypt were considered to be aspects of the sun god, including e. g. Khepri. From roughly 2000 BC, the spread to the Levant. It appears in reliefs with Assyrian rulers and in Hieroglyphic Anatolian as a symbol for royalty, from ca. the 8th century BC, the winged solar disk appears on Hebrew seals connected to the royal house of the Kingdom of Judah. Many of these are seals and jar handles from Hezekiahs reign, typically, Hezekiahs royal seals feature two downward-pointing wings and six rays emanating from the central sun disk, and some are flanked on either side with the Egyptian ankh symbol. Prior to this, there are examples from the seals of servants of king Ahaz, compare also Malachi 4,2, referring to a winged Sun of righteousness, But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. The symbol evolved into the Faravahar in Zoroastrian Persia, the winged sun is conventionally depicted as the knob of the Staff of Hermes. The symbol was used on the cover of Charles Taze Russells textbook series Studies in the Scriptures beginning with the 1911 editions, various groups such as Freemasonry, Theosophy, Rosicrucians and Unity Church have also used it. Variations of the symbol are used as a logo on vehicles produced by the Chrysler Corporation. A winged sun is used in the heraldry of the North America Trade Directory, R. Mayer, Opificius, Die geflügelte Sonne, Himmels- und Regendarstellungen im Alten Vorderasien, UF16 189-236. D. Parayre, Carchemish entre Anatolie et Syrie à travers limage du disque solaire ailé, D. Parayre, Les cachets ouest-sémitiques à travers limage du disque solaire ailé, Syria 67 269-314. Winged genie Relief Depicting Gilgamesh Between Two Bull-Men Supporting a Winged Sun Disk, Kapara palace, Charles T. Russells use of winged disk

81.
Books of Breathing
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The Books of Breathing are several late ancient Egyptian funerary texts, intended to enable deceased people to continue to exist in the afterlife. The earliest known copy dates to about 350 BC, other copies come from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history, as late as the second century AD. The books were originally named The Letter for Breathing Which Isis Made for Her Brother Osiris, The First Letter for Breathing and they appear in many varying copies, and scholars have often confused them with each other. Their titles use the word breathing as a term for all the aspects of life that the deceased hoped to experience again in the afterlife. The texts exhort various Egyptian gods to accept the deceased into their company, egyptologists assert that some of the papyri that Joseph Smith claimed to use to translate the Book of Abraham are actually parts of the Books of Breathing. Book of the Dead Book of Abraham Hornung, Erik, the Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri, an Egyptian Endowment, salt Lake City, UT, Deseret Book Company. What is The Book of Breathings, BYU Studies, Vol.11, No.2. Traversing Eternity, Texts for the Afterlife from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt

82.
Book of the Earth
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The Book of the Earth is an Ancient Egyptian funerary text that has been called many names such as The Creation of the Sun Disk and the Book of Aker. The Book primarily appears on the tombs of Merneptah, Twosret, Ramesses III, Ramesses VI, the central figures in the story are Osiris, Ra and Ba, while the overarching plot is the journey the sun takes through the earth god, Aker. The scenes were found on all of the walls of the tombs of Ramesses VI, jean-François Champollion was the first one to publish the scenes and texts from the tomb of Ramesses VI in his Monuments de lEgypte where he deciphered the hieroglyphs depicted in the tombs. Alexandre Piankoff was the first one to study the composition of the images and hieroglyphics. Bruno H. Stricker provided an explanation of the Book as a divine embryology in 1963, although it is uncertain, it is believed that the surviving panels of the original composition were each divided into three registers. Thus making it unclear whether or not scenes from other tombs are actually part of the story of the Book of the Earth or if they are separate. Scholars believe that the Book consists of two halves with one half containing scenes of punishment, the Book of the Earth uses the sun disc as a reoccurring theme. The scenes are oriented so that they are facing to the right, and this is the opposite of the typical configuration according to Alexandre Piankoff. The Book is divided into five components, Part E, Part D, Part C, Part B. These components make up the theme of the creation of the solar disc, most of the content takes place within Part D and Part A. In this part, there are six gods shown praying to a sun disc at burial mounds and this is smallest portion of the Book that is known, and Part E is most likely not the beginning of the Book of the Earth. Part D is probably the beginning of the composition, where most of the setting is introduced, a majority of the content of the Book of the Earth is also located within this section. The realm of the dead is depicted with Osiris, as the primary figure, beneath Osiris are the gods Anubis and another god who have their arms stretched out to provide protection over his corpse. This scene depicts renewal, while the scenes on both adjacent sides depict punishment, in the scenes of punishment, the gods of punishment are represented and are holding cauldrons. Next, the mummy of the sun god stands upon a large sun disc that is enclosed by two pairs of arms rising from the depths of Nun, surrounding this scene is a wreath of twelve stars and twelve small disks that indicate the course of the hours. The hands of two goddesses hold the ends of this illustration, the final scene in this section shows Aker, who is representing the barque of the sun god, as a double sphinx. The barque is supported by two uraei, and inside the barque are Khepri and Thoth who are praying to the sun god, underneath the barque are two royal figures with Isis and Nephthys who are holding a winged scarab beetle and a sun disc. The middle register begins with Horus rising up out of a figure called the Western One

83.
Book of Gates
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The Book of Gates is an Ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. It narrates the passage of a deceased soul into the next world. The soul is required to pass through a series of gates at different stages in the journey, each gate is associated with a different goddess, and requires that the deceased recognise the particular character of that deity. The text implies that people will pass through unharmed. These are depicted in procession entering the next world, the text and images associated with the Book of Gates appear in many tombs of the New Kingdom, including all the pharaonic tombs between Horemheb and Ramesses VII. They also appear in the tomb of Sennedjem, a worker in the village of Deir el-Medina, the ancient village of artists and craftsmen who built pharaonic tombs in the New Kingdom. The goddesses listed in the Book of Gates each have different titles, and wear different coloured clothes, Book of the Dead Sacred texts - Gate

Book of Gates
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The four races of the world: a Libyan ("Themehu"), a Nubian ("Nehesu"), an Asiatic ("Aamu"), and an Egyptian ("Reth"). An artistic rendering, based on a mural from the tomb of Seti I.
Book of Gates
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Another rendering.

84.
Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld
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KV62 is the standard Egyptological designation for the tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, now renowned for the wealth of valuable antiquities it contained. The tomb was densely packed with items in great disarray, partly due to its small size, the two robberies, and the apparently hurried nature of its completion. Due to the state of the tomb, and to Carters meticulous recording technique, the tomb took eight years to empty, Tutankhamuns tomb had been entered at least twice, not long after he was buried and well before Carters discovery. The outermost doors of the enclosing the kings nested coffins were unsealed. In 1907, just before his discovery of the tomb of Horemheb, erroneously assuming that this site, numbered finally as KV54, was Tutankhamuns complete tomb, Davis concluded the dig. But Davis was to be proven spectacularly wrong, the British Egyptologist Howard Carter hired a crew to help him excavate at the site of KV62. Carter went back to a line of huts that he had abandoned a few seasons earlier, after clearance of the huts and rock debris beneath, they found a stone step cut into the bedrock. A flight of steps was partially uncovered, leading to the top of a mud-plastered doorway stamped with indistinct oval seals, called cartouches. Carter ordered the staircase to be refilled, and sent a telegram to Carnarvon, the excavators cleared the stairway completely, which allowed clearer seals lower down on the door to be read, seals bearing the name of Tutankhamun. However, further examination showed that the blocking had been breached and resealed on at least two occasions. Clearing the blocking led to a corridor that was completely blocked with packed limestone chippings, through which a robbers tunnel had been excavated. At the end of the tunnel was a sealed door that had been breached and re-sealed in antiquity. Carter then made a hole in the door, and used a candle to check for foul gases, the first step to the stairs was found on November 4,1922. The following day saw the exposure of a complete staircase, the end of November saw access to the antechamber and the discovery of the annex, and then the burial chamber and treasury. On November 29, the tomb was opened, and the first announcement, the first item was removed from the tomb on December 27. On February 16,1923, the chamber was opened. On February 12,1924, the lid of the sarcophagus was raised. In April, Carter argued with the Antiquities Service and left the excavation for the United States, work started in the treasury on October 24,1926, and between October 30 and December 15,1927, the annex was emptied and examined

Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld
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Sheet from a Book of the Dead, ca. 1075-945 B.C.E., 37.1699E, Brooklyn Museum
Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld
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Sarcophagus Lid for Pa-di-Inpu, ca. 305-30 B.C.E., 34.1222, Brooklyn Museum; Elaborate stone sarcophagi were available only to the very richest Egyptians. Others made do with local wood, terracotta, or even wickerwork.

85.
Litany of the Eye of Horus
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The Litany of the Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian text in the style of a funerary text. A small portion of the text is contained in a wall relief fragment of painted hieroglyphs located in the British Museum. The painted hieroglyphs for the segment in the tomb of the 19th dynasty pharaoh Seti I are also carved in low raised relief. The Litany of the Eye of Horus is a Middle Egyptian offering liturgy, cracking Codes, The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment, Richard Parkinson, c 1999, Univ. of California Press Book of the Dead Ancient Egyptian offering formula

Litany of the Eye of Horus
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The Litany of the Eye of Horus, 5 vertical registers of a wall relief section from TT17, Tomb of Seti I, corridor H, Valley of the Kings. (H24.5 cm, W38.4 cm, D12.3 cm.

86.
Litany of Re
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The Litany of Re is an important Ancient Egyptian funerary text of the New Kingdom. Like many funerary texts, it was written on the inside of the tomb for reference by the deceased, unlike other funerary texts, however, it was reserved only for pharaohs or very favored nobility. It is a composition that in the first part invokes the sun, Ra. The second part is a series of prayers in which the pharaoh assumes parts of nature and deities, developed in the Eighteenth Dynasty, it also praises the king for his union with the sun god, as well as other deities. The text was used in the entrance of most tombs from the time of Seti I, though we first know of it from the chamber of Thutmose III. Litany of the Eye of Horus Hornung, Erik, the Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife

87.
Curse of the pharaohs
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The curse of the pharaohs refers to an alleged curse believed by some to be cast upon any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian person, especially a pharaoh. This curse, which does not differentiate between thieves and archaeologists, allegedly can cause bad luck, illness or death. Since the mid-20th century, many authors and documentaries have argued that the curse is real in the sense of being caused by scientifically explicable causes such as bacteria or radiation. There are occasional instances of genuine ancient curses appearing inside or on the façade of a tomb and these appear to be directed towards the ka priests to protect the tomb carefully and preserve its ritual purity rather than as a warning for potential robbers. There had been stories of going back to the 19th century. Despite popular misconceptions, no curse was actually found inscribed in the Pharaohs tomb, the evidence for curses relating to King Tutankhamun is considered to be so meager that Donald B. Redford viewed it as unadulterated clap trap. Curses relating to tombs are extremely rare, possibly because the idea of such desecration was unthinkable and they most frequently occur in private tombs of the Old Kingdom era. The tomb of Ankhtifi contains the warning, any ruler who, shall do evil or wickedness to this coffin. May Hemen not accept any goods he offers, and may his heir not inherit, the tomb of Khentika Ikhekhi contains an inscription, As for all men who shall enter this my tomb. An end shall be made for him, I shall seize his neck like a bird. I shall cast the fear of myself into him, curses after the Old Kingdom era are less common though more severe, sometimes invoking the ire of Thoth or the destruction of Sekhemet. Zahi Hawass quotes an example of a curse, Cursed be those who disturb the rest of a Pharaoh and they that shall break the seal of this tomb shall meet death by a disease that no doctor can diagnose. In 1699, Louis Penicher wrote an account in which he recorded how a Polish traveler bought two mummies in Alexandria and embarked on a sea journey with the mummies in the cargo hold. The traveler was alarmed by recurring visions of two specters, and the seas did not abate until the mummies were thrown overboard. Zahi Hawass recalled that as a young archaeologist excavating at Kom Abu-Bellou he had to transport a number of artifacts from the Greco-Roman site and his cousin died on that day, on its anniversary, his uncle died and on the third anniversary his aunt died. May the hippopotamus be against them in water, the scorpion against them on land, though not superstitious, he decided not to disturb the mummies. However, he later was involved in the removal of two child mummies from Bahariya Oasis to a museum and reported he was haunted by the children in his dreams, the phenomena did not stop until the mummy of the father was re-united with the children in the museum. He came to the conclusion that mummies should not be displayed, Hawass also recorded an incident of a sick young boy who loved Ancient Egypt and was subject to a miracle cure in the Egyptian Museum when he looked into the eyes of the mummy of King Ahmose I

Curse of the pharaohs
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The Royal Cobra (Uraeus), representing the protector goddess Wadjet, atop the mask of Tutankhamun.
Curse of the pharaohs
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The statue of Anubis figure which guarded the entrance to Tutankhamun's treasury room.
Curse of the pharaohs
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The death of Lord Carnarvon six weeks after the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb resulted in many curse stories in the press.
Curse of the pharaohs
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Discovery

88.
Ancient Egyptian burial customs
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The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals and protocols included mummifying the body, casting of magic spells, the burial process used by the ancient Egyptians evolved throughout time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the rituals involved. Though no writing survives from Predynastic Egypt, scholars believe the importance of the physical body and this would explain why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation, but rather buried the dead. Some also believe they may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death, early bodies were buried in simple, shallow oval pits, with a few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave, over time, graves became more complex, with the body placed in a wicker basket, then later in wooden or terracotta coffins. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophaguses and these graves contained burial goods like jewelry, food, games and sharpened splint. This demonstrates that this ancient period had a sense of the afterlife and this may be because admission required that the deceased must be able to serve a purpose there. The pharaoh was allowed in because of his role in life, human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce this view. These people were meant to serve the pharaoh during his eternal life. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims, some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the pharaoh after their lives ended. Note that not only the classes had to rely on the pharaoh’s favor. They believed that when he died, the became a type of god. This belief existed from the period through the Old Kingdom. In the First Intermediate Period, however, the importance of the pharaoh declined, funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The first farmers in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari, the people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round graves with one pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a way as would be the case later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife except for the inclusion of a single pot in the grave

89.
Ancient Egyptian offering formula
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The Ancient Egyptian offering formula, generally referred to as the ḥtp-dỉ-nsw formula by Egyptologists, was written as an offering for the deceased in the ancient Egyptian religion. All ancient Egyptian offering formulas share the basic structure, but there is a great deal of variety in which deities and offerings are mentioned. That he may give a voice-offering of bread, beer, oxen, birds, alabaster, clothing, for the ka of the revered Senwosret, True of Voice. The offering formula is found carved or painted onto funerary stelae, false doors, coffins. Each person would, of course, have their own name, the offering formula was not a royal prerogative like some of the other religious texts such as the Litany of Re, and was used by anyone who could afford to have one made. The offering formula always begins with the phrase, ḥtp dỉ nsw This phrase comes from Old Egyptian, because the king was seen as an intermediary between the people of Egypt and the gods, the offering was made through him. Next the formula names a god of the dead and several of his epithets, usually Osiris, Anubis, or Geb or another deity. The following phrase is an invocation of Osiris, wsỉr nb ḏdw, nṯr ꜥꜣ, nb ꜣbḏw which means Osiris, the lord of Busiris, the great god. There was apparently no set rule about what epithets were used, however Lord of Busiris, Great God, after the list of deities and their titles, the formula proceeds with a list of the ḫrt-prw, or invocation offerings. The list is always preceded by the phrase, or dỉ=f prt-ḫrw or dỉ=sn prt-ḫrw which means He give invocation offerings, the last part of the offering formula lists the name and titles of the recipient of the invocation offerings. For example, n kꜣ n ỉmꜣḫy s-n-wsrt, mꜣꜥ-ḫrw which means for the ka of the revered Senwosret, Egyptian mythology Egyptian soul Ancient Egyptian burial customs Ancient Egyptian funerary texts Bennett, C. Growth of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom Offering Formulas—A Challenge. Die Opferformel des Alten Reiches unter Berücksichtigung einiger später Formen, mainz am Rhein, Verlag Philipp von Zabern. The Writing of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle and New Kingdoms, telford, Mark Patrick, Death And The Afterlife

Ancient Egyptian offering formula
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The offering formula shown on a funerary stela. On this particular stela, the formula begins on the first line and reads from right to left